Dagoba eclipse 87%

Here's a warning: this chocolate is bitter to the extreme. Everything about it is chocolatey, and I'm not talking about the Hersheys kind of chocolatey. I'm talking real chocolatey, which is bitter bitter bitter. It's spicy, pungent, and once the bitterness wraps around your tongue there's no going back. If you don't take a sip of water, the taste will linger in your mouth for a long, long time. Even when it's gone, you'll wonder if you're still tasting it. This is not to say that it's unpleasant. I've had chocolate that was very dark, very bitter, and that was the end of it. The eclipse is yummy enough to eat all of it in one sitting; it's just that it's extremely chocolatey.

The smell is cinnamony and clovey with a hint of fruitiness. It also smells acidic, as if it's been infused with vinegar. It's not exactly inviting but more as if it's saying "eat me if you dare."

The eclipse isn't going to be everybody's favorite. Eating it reminded me of the time I bit into my old roomate Mitch's egglplant parmesan where the eggplant either wasn't cooked all the way or it wasn't ripe enough to begin with and coated my mouth with a film of strange substance. It was the same thing that happened to me when I was a kid and bit into an unripe persimmon and ended up washing out my mouth. For any Koreans out there reading this, it tasted "dup dup" if you know what I mean.

I have a weird relationship with this chocolate. I can't say I love it, but for some reason I always end up buying it and eating a lot of it. My guess is that it takes care of my chocophelia fast and thorough. I must gravitate towards it.

Overall, I would recommend the eclipse only to those of you chocophiles who truly enjoy bitter chocolate.