In early July 2021, I stumbled across an ad for Crio Bru, which said something along the lines of "Brewed Cacao. Brews like coffee. Tastes like heaven." I was intrigued enough to go to the website and see what it was about, and it turns out it's cacao beans that have been roasted and ground in much the same way coffee beans are roasted and ground.
Doing a bit of reading on places like Reddit, the general consensus is it's not exactly like hot chocolate and it's not exactly like coffee, but it's somewhere in between.
I'm not a coffee drinker, but I was curious, so I ordered a sampler set of 5 different roasts. I crossed my fingers hoping the assessment of "it's not like coffee" was accurate.
Overview: If you're brand spanking new to the world of brewed cocoa, you may want to head over to the overview page. There you can take in a tiny bit of terminology, learn a little about the brewing methods I'm using, and find some links to the brands that I've found so far.
First Impressions: If you're curious, you can read about some of my first impressions from before I started this site. This is a good spot to learn a little about the roast varieties that are available from the various vendors.
The Library: This is essentially a list of all the varieties I've acquired and that I'm working through tasting. The page for each variety has the side-by-side tests that I've done so far. This was the reason why I started this part of the site. I wanted to learn more about how the various bean origins, roasting levels, and brands compared to one another in an effort to find the varieties I like the best. There's a lot to learn along the way.
Side Steps and Musings: While working through the side-by-side comparisons, there are certain tangents that I find myself getting sidetracked into that don't necessarily have to do with a single test. These are broader subjects that may relate to the big picture, or they may simply be points of interest for various aspects.
Cocoa Conclusions: If you're just here for the spoilers, then turn to the last page for the "who dunnit", which is my ranked list of varieties. This is the side-by-side rounds all tidied up into a neat numbered list without all the words to get in the way.