There can be a lot of confusion about the words used for some of this, so I'll pass on what I've figured out so far. This page has some good information, but I'll only repeat the basics here.
cacao: the raw, fermented and unprocessed bean
cocoa: the processed bean, usually involving roasting.
nibs: the writing point of a fountain pen. ;-) Also the chopped pieces of the raw cacao bean.
husk: the outer shell of the bean, sometimes included as part of the grounds for brewing. When brewed alone (without the beans or nibs) then it is considered "cocoa tea".
The really confusing part about all of this is a lot of places refer to their product as "brewed cacao" even though the beans are roasted and ground. According to the definitions above, that would categorize them as "brewed cocoa", but I think they do it to differentiate it from "hot cocoa" or "hot chocolate", which is really a different thing than we're doing here.
In most of the site, I will refer to it as "brewed cocoa" since the term feels more accurate. Although, Sam, my manager at work, calls it "chocolate chimney powder", which may also be accurate. :-D
These are the companies I have found selling brewing cocoa or cocoa tea. I'll add to the list as I find more.
Crio Bru: A number of origin offerings and roast levels. Also offers limited editions and flavored roasts.
Choffy: Not quite as much variety as Crio Bru, but they offer a number of combination sets based on roasting level, both in sample sizes and full 12 oz bag sizes.
Chocolate Alchemy: This is actually a supplier for making chocolate, but he also offers several roasts and blends of brewing cocoa.
Cacao Tea Co.: True to the name, this is the only one advertising "tea" instead of "brewing cocoa/cacao"
Creo Chocolate: They seem to offer only 1 variety, which is from Ecuador, but the roast level is unspecified.
Hawaiian Crown: They seem to offer only 1 variety, which is from *surprise* Hawaii. Roasting level is unspecified.
There are a number of brewing methods you can use to make brewed cocoa, most of which are the same ones used for brewing coffee. The Crio Bru site has a lot of good information about the particulars of each method, especially in how the brewing process can be a little different from coffee. In general, brewing cocoa needs a longer and slower brew time, and it has a higher chance of clogging paper filters or extremely fine meshes due to the oil content.
While just about any coffee brewing method can be used for this, the three methods I have available to me are:
a single serving drip coffee maker (not a K-cup style)
a large, fine-mesh tea infuser
a french press
Per the Crio Bru instructions, if you're going use a drip coffee maker, you need a permanent mesh filter, and you need to set the coffee maker to the "bold" setting. Paper filters clog, and even a permanent filter can overflow if the water flows in too quickly.
We've had a Hamilton Beach 2-Way Coffee Maker for years, and according to Em, it's worked great. It fit the bill with the requirements since the single serving side had a permanent filter, and it had a bold setting. When I first started my brewing cocoa journey, this was where I started.
I found pretty quickly that the years of coffee use tainted the flavor of the brewed cocoa quite a bit, so I moved on to other methods.
While I didn't see it listed anywhere on the Crio Bru or Choffy sites about using a tea infuser, doing a bit of reading online showed that there are people who have successfully used tea infusers to brew coffee, so I figured it should work for this, too.
After a couple of weeks of using the drip coffee maker, I also ordered a large tea infuser fine mesh tea infuser, and I wanted to give that a try. It did ok, but there was definitely a lot of sediment left in the cup from the brewing process. They weren't enough that I would have considered them to be "grounds", but it was definitely a bit rough and gritty. But I liked it better than using the coffee maker, so that's what I did for a week or so. It was about this time that I also picked up a mini french press, which I'll get to in a bit.
Later, about the time I was between rounds 13 and 14 of the side-by-side tests, I was talking with Sam and he commented on how his tea infuser kept out much more sediment than the his french press, which really surprised me considering my own contrary experience. He sent me a picture of his infuser, but didn't have any info since it was given to him as gift. I could tell that the mesh seemed much more fine than my own, so I went infuser hunting.
I wound up finding one that was labeled as a "tea and coffee infuser", and the mesh looked way more fine than my current infuser, so I ordered it. I started using it with round 15, and I'm happy to say that it does a much better job than my old infuser, and maybe even slightly better than the french press!
When I was researching using tea infusers for brewing coffee, I stumbled upon a comment somewhere that Ikea carries a small single-serving french press. Since I was going to be near an Ikea in the next week or so, I stopped by and picked up two, and Sam got one. I really enjoy the ritual of using it, but cleaning the filter is a little bit of a pain because the grounds get stuck between the mesh and the frame.
After side-by-side round 20, I found a 28 oz french press at Aldi just by chance. It was the same price as the Ikea single serving press, which was already incredibly cheap. Now if I were so inclined, it will allow me to make two 12 oz cups of the same roast. But I mainly got it so that I can have one press at work and one at home, and I didn't have to go all the way back to Ikea to get it.
I know this is a really basic topic, but when I first started using the tea infuser and french press, I was heating the water by microwaving it right in the cup. It was hard to judge just how hot the water actually was. It was hot, sure, but I wasn't sure if it was actually "brewing" hot. Between rounds 5 and 6 of the side-by-side testing, I purchased a tea kettle and I now use that to heat the water.
One little hint I found online about this: Once the water hits a boil, remove it from the heat, and then wait about 30 seconds before pouring it into the grounds. Not waiting can make the brew more bitter and burnt tasting.