Mast Brothers Vanilla & Smoke

A chocolate bar before Mast Brothers' wordmark became MAST, and before Vanilla & Smoke became just Smoke. Mast Brothers have recently launched their new range, and seem to have removed the vanilla from this Papua New Guinea smokey chocolate

The 'smoke' comes from the Papua New Guinea cacao beans being smoked. I feel confident in saying that this post-fermentation act was done at source, due to Papua New Guinea cacao being most commonly fire-dried, which naturally adds a smokey flavour. Mast Brothers stating that it is smoke is good, as we know what to expect

scuffed because from NY to LA to NY to LDN

It's an aroma of smoking car tyres. The taste was smoke, leather, vanilla comes in super quick, the smokiness flattens out and brings out pure cocoa. A nutty taste then leads to citrus acidity, which then rounds to mulberry acidity, all whilst smoking

The texture of Mast Brothers is a lot better than I remember. I liked it. The Dominican bar I had last year was pretty dry, but this Smoke & Vanilla bar was a huge improvement in texture, with the delivery of flavour being more successful