A lightly tart dark chocolate brownie
Amount of grounds:
2 tablespoons per 10 oz of water
Brewing time:
8.5 minutes
Additions:
Vanilla Almond Milk
Reusing grounds:
Not tested
Using grounds in food:
Not tested
General Thoughts:
On its own, Shadow's Silhouette often comes with a tart flavor that I'm not a fan of, but it often finishes with a flavor and aroma like a fresh brownie, just like Chocolate Alchemy's description. It's fine and drinkable like that, but where it really shines is when adding just a little bit of vanilla almond milk to it. It goes into pure chocolate bliss. As of now, I still have some other Chocolate Alchemy blends and single origins to test, but between all the Crio Bru and Choffy offerings, this is hands down the closest to drinking milk chocolate, and it is quickly replacing Anakin with almond milk as my absolute favorite.
While they were both sitting here cooling, I could just smell the chocolate coming off them. Yum. Although, in spite of that, the Shadow's Silhouette's aroma now has a stronger tartness to it. The Ecuador has a pretty strong sweetness to the aroma. It's feeling really familiar, but not just because it's shown up here before. It's more like I recognize it from somewhere else. It reminds me of some type of food... like a baked good or something. I'm trying to place it, but it's just not coming to me. Sigh.
As far as drinking them, they pretty much match their aromas. The Shadow's Silhouette is tart this time around, with only a little bit of chocolatey flavor to it, while the Ecuador has that sweetness to it that I've been finding more frequently. In this pairing, the Ecuador wins easily.
I decided to just start with adding the vanilla almond milk to the Shadow's Silhouette only and see how it compares against the undoctored Ecuador. As expected, the Shadow's Silhouette now has a pure chocolate flavor while the Ecuador has the sweetness, but lacks the chocolate. While they're both great, the Shadow's Silhouette wins this one.
Now adding the almond milk to the Ecuador, there's a stronger chocolate flavor, but it's still paired up with that sweet flavor that I can't seem to place. They're both excellent, and which one I prefer this way may be down to just how I'm feeling in the moment. I'm calling this one a tie.
The Shadow's Silhouette is starting off a bit on the tart side this time, but it's still decently chocolatey and has a little bit of that brownie flavor. The aroma and flavor the Ecuador, on the other hand, has that slightly sharp sweetness to it, but mostly lacks the chocolatey notes. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, the tartness is stronger, and there's now a bit of a fermented flavor coming out. The Ecuador is the winner here by quite a bit.
With vanilla almond milk in both, the Shadow's Silhouette is now pure chocolate. The Ecuador is more chocolatey, but nowhere near the Shadow's Silhouette. There's still just the hint of the sweetness I noted above, but it's definitely less now. It's mostly in the aroma, actually, while the flavor is more chocolatey. It's really good. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette again, even though it's very chocolatey, the Ecuador once again brings out a little of the tartness a hint of fermentation. If I space these out a bit, Shadow's Silhouette is still the winner, but drinking them close together, the narrows that gap due to the way Ecuador changes the flavor of Shadow's Silhouette. It's a really close race, but I think I have to give it to the Shadow's Silhouette by a hair.
Shadow's Silhouette started off a little milder than usual. It's decently chocolatey, and only the tiniest bit tart, but it seems to be missing the stronger flavors and aromas that invoke the "brownies baking in an oven" feel. I mean, it's ok, but I was expecting... more. Oh, or maybe my tastebuds just needed to wake up a bit. There they are! The Ghana has a lightly earthy, almost dusty aroma to it, but in taking a sip, I was surprised to find a bright sweetness to it! It has that light grainy flavor to it, but it's not chocolatey, really, but just sweet somehow. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, the tartness is pretty much gone, but it's definitely more chocolatey. Wow, these two really elevate each other. Picking a winner is hard because even though they're both really good, I feel like even if I look at it with a long term drinking perspective, I think which one I'd pick would depend on what I'm in the mood for. I'm calling this a tie.
As usual, adding the vanilla almond milk to the Shadow's Silhouette goes super chocolatey and is so good! The Ghana, honestly, doesn't feel like it changed much. There may be just the tiniest bit more chocolate to the flavor, but it's still really hidden behind the sweet grain flavor. Although they're both great, the Shadow's Silhouette is the winner by far.
Today is one of the days where Shadow's Silhouette starts off as smelling and tasting a lot like a brownie with, so far, no signs of tartness. Going over to the Ghana, like with the light roast, this one has a little bit of dusty aroma and flavor to it, but there's also a sweetness with maybe just a hint of smokiness. Back to the Shadow's Silhouette, a little bit of the tartness is now coming out. These are both pretty good, but I think the tartness hurts the overall impression of the Shadow's Silhouette a little, so I think Ghana wins by just a tiny bit.
Adding vanilla almond milk to both, per usual, the Shadow's Silhouette goes super chocolatey. Even though it happens every time, it still blows me away. :-) The Ghana still has a little of that dusty and earthy flavor, but I feel like there's more chocolate in the flavor now, too. It's not nearly as much as the Shadow's Silhouette, which wins by a landslide, but it's still good.
I had a hard time deciding which one to start with this time. It's been a long time since I've had the Nicaragua, and I know when I was finishing up comparing it against everything, it was becoming increasingly unpleasant to drink. My hope is that with the flavor being so far out of memory at the moment, maybe it would be better now. But at the same time, if I still don't like it, I don't want it to affect Shadow's Silhouette right away.
In the end, I decided to start off with Shadow's Silhouette, and it has the familiar brownie-like aroma and decently chocolatey flavor with no hint of the tartness at the moment. Will that change? Find out next! *dramatic zoom* The Nicaragua also has a bit of chocolatey flavor, but the background is different in that there's a bitterness that's hanging around. The aroma is somewhat earthy, but I wouldn't say that earthiness is what comes through in the flavor. Just the chocolate and bitterness. Going back to Shadow's Silhouette, there's a hint of the tartness now, but it's still decently chocolatey with the brownie thing going on. Shadow's Silhouette is the winner.
With vanilla almond milk, Shadow's Silhouette is super chocolatey, as usual. The Nicaragua is better and has a stronger chocolate flavor as well, but the bitterness is still coming through. The Shadow's Silhouette is the strong winner here.
Even though I just tested Shadow's Silhouette against Nicaragua Medium and all was fine, this time around it's starting off with a very strong tart quality. There's still chocolate in both the aroma and flavor, though. The Venezuela has a kind of an earthy aroma, but also sort of... rubbery? I know that's not the right word and sounds horrible, but it's the only one that's coming to mind. It's really not bad, though. The flavor is fairly earthy, but there's also a little bit of a sour note, but a decent amount of chocolate in it. It's not tart in the same way the Shadow's Silhouette is. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, though, it's even more tart after the Venezuela. Venezuela, while not a favorite, is the clear winner here.
With vanilla almond milk in them both, I can already smell the strong chocolate aroma coming off of both of them. Oh wow... both the Shadow's Silhouette and the Venezuela have pretty much gone super saiyan chocolate! There's a slightly different flavor between them, which I think has to do with the earthy flavor of the Venezuela, but they're both excellent. I think this is a tie!
This makes me want to compare Venezuela with the almond milk against some of the others were it lost previously. Depending on what I have left after some of the Chocolate Alchemy single origins and the Choffy Nigeria that I have on order, I may do that.
Shadow's Silhouette starts off somewhat tart with a little bit of a fermented flavor, but also a bit fudgy and a little brownie like It's ok, but not great. The Uber Dark has a very strong roasty aroma, but in with it, I also smell a little bit of the sharp sweetness that I pick up from some of the Ecuador roasts. The flavor is also very roasty and smoky, but it's not as bad as I remembered it previously. It does bring out extra tartness and fermentation in the Shadow's Silhouette, though. I'm a little surprised, but I think I like the Uber Dark just a little more here, although I'd be hard pressed to say that I actually like it.
Adding vanilla almond milk to both and starting with Shadow's Silhouette, it goes from tart and fermented to pure chocolate. I am really loving that about this roast. It's always amazing to see such a difference. For the Uber Dark, while the roasty and smoky flavors are tamed, they're still there. The sharp sweetness does come forward a bit, which is nice, and overall it's improved by having the almond milk in it. But that pure chocolate flavor of the Shadow's Silhouette just beats it, hands down.
I started with the Ocumare, and while it's light, it's extremely earthy to the point of being bitter. The Shadow's Silhouette next to it is tart and has that fermented flavor and aroma, but there's still a bit of fudgy brownie to it. Going back to the Ocumare right after, and the bitter flavor is heightened. I'm not a fan of drinking either black like this, but I'd have to say the Shadow's Silhouette wins out.
Adding just a little vanilla almond milk to both, the Shadow's Silhouette becomes that awesome chocolate bomb that I'm falling in love with. The flavor of the Ocumare is tamed, but it's still earthy and bitter, but the aroma almost smells rubbery. I'm really still not a fan of Ocumare. The Shadow's Silhouette is far and away the winner.
This is my first side-by-side comparison in a long while. It's been close to 4 weeks since I've done one. I was waiting for the newest batch from Chocolate Alchemy with all the single origin stuff, the blends I haven't tried yet, and a bigger sample of Shadow's Silhouette so I could test it against everything. Plus I was reworking my scoring sheet to account for comparisons with additives like vanilla almond milk and to update the scoring system to a range rather than a flat "win/tie/lose" system to allow for more nuanced scoring. "Did I like it a little, or did I absolutely love it?"
Kicking things off with the Ecuador Dark, the aroma had a slight sweetness to it, but taking a sip, it was quite bitter at first, but after another sip or two, it calmed down some. It's still bitter, but I'm picking up on that lightly sweet "ting" that I've noticed in some of the other Ecuador roasts before. Going over to the Shadow's Silhouette, it smells quite chocolatey, very much like a brownie, and that kind of carries over into the flavor. It's definitely lighter, a little on the fruity side, and pretty chocolatey overall. There may be a slight hint of the fermented bready flavor I've picked up in other roasts, but in this case, it really lends itself to the brownie aroma and flavor it has going on. Quite interestingly, when going back to the Ecuador, that dark sweetness is quite a bit stronger after having spent a little time with the Shadow's Silhouette, and the overall experience is elevated over how the initial sips started. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette immediately after the Ecuador causes a kind of tartness to come out. So in this case, going from Ecuador to Shadow's Silhouette needs to be done slowly, but going the other direction can be done quickly. The Ecuador is definitely growing on me more than how it started at the beginning, but in the end, I prefer the Shadow's Silhouette due to the richer chocolate flavor.
Adding vanilla almond milk to them both, the Ecuador really lightens up and gets more chocolatey, although it's a little washed out. That may actually just be due to drinking it so closely to the stronger and darker stuff just a moment before. Anyway, it's a different sort of chocolate than what was in the original Shadow's Silhouette, and rather than brownies, it's a more "just chocolate". The Shadow's Silhouette, on the other hand, goes from brownies to a chocolate croissant. It has more of that bready flavor, but without the fermented flavor to it. It's actually pretty good like that. This time around, at least, I'm not sure if I like it more or less than the version without the almond milk. Going back to the Ecuador after, that sharp sweetness stands out a lot more and is really good, and tastes less washed out. Between these two versions, I think I like the Shadow's Silhouette just a tiny bit more, but it's really close, and they're both very good.
The Shadow's Silhouette starts off with that aroma that's a little bit like brownies, and the flavor is fairly chocolatey, but a little tart. The Ecuador, in comparison, is super strong, pungent, and roasty, but it has just a hint of that sharp sweetness that pops up sometimes in the Ecuador roasts. For me, it's hard to drink black, but it's not as bad as other times I've had it. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette after the Ecuador, and I'm surprised to find that it now has a little bit of that bready and fermented flavor that I sometimes notice with lighter roasts. A lot of the chocolatey flavor and aroma seems to be gone. Not all of it, but a lot of it. But even with that being the case, and while neither are great in this context, I prefer the Shadow's Silhouette over the Ecuador here.
Adding vanilla almond milk to both of them and starting again with the Shadow's Silhouette, that super strong chocolate flavor comes out and is delicious. The aroma still has a tiny bit of that fermentation in it, but it's not in the flavor. As for the Ecuador, the flavor is tamed a lot, and definitely improved by the addition of the almond milk, but the pungency and roast still come through quite a bit. It's much more drinkable, but I still really strongly prefer the Shadow's Silhouette over it.
Starting with the Ivory Coast, it starts off as fairly earthy in aroma and grainy in flavor. There's pretty much no chocolate flavor to be found. (Which is always such a weird thing to me!) The Shadow's Silhouette after it is... strange. In previous comparisons it had a brownie-like aroma and flavor, but I'm just not picking that up at the start. It's a little tart, a tiny bit bready, and somewhat chocolatey, but I have to really think about it to to match that up to the "baking brownies". Going back to the Ivory Coast, it's still a little earthy, but it's lighter and leaning a little more into the grainy side both in aroma and flavor. Drinking the Shadow's Silhouette too close to the Ivory Coast really brings out the tartness, so I have to be careful of that. Hmmm... even after giving a few minutes and coming back to it, that tartness is still pretty strong now. It's almost like it's "ruined" for me for the morning. :-( I guess based on that, I have to say that I like the Ivory Coast more than the Shadow's Silhouette.
I added just a tiny bit of vanilla almond milk to the Shadow's Silhouette, and WOW, that went SUPER chocolatey and really good! This is almost like "chocolate cereal bomb" level of chocolatey. It absolutely blows the Ivory Coast out of the water!
Starting with the Ivory Coast, it strikes me as being a sweeter and more grainy flavor than I remember. I just compared Volta Dark to Shadow's Silhouette this morning, and this seems to be a lighter flavor than that. But like with the Volta, if I go to the Shadow's Silhouette too quickly after, it's fairly tart. The aroma at first even makes my nose crinkle with tartness. Waiting a few minutes and going back to it, it gets closer to that now familiar brownie flavor, but it still retains some of the tartness. Going back to the Ivory Coast, it's much more earthy now, but there's hardly any chocolate flavor in it. Even in spit of that, Ivory Coast wins out over Shadow's Silhouette.
I added vanilla almond milk to both and took a sip of the Shadow's Silhouette. Woooooooow. So chocolatey, and sooooo good. The Ivory Coast gets a little more chocolatey, but it still has some of that earthy flavor. The Shadow's Silhouette is the winner by a huge margin. With the almond milk, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite roasts.
The Shadow's Silhouette starts of a lightly tart, both in aroma and flavor, but has a decent chocolatey flavor. In comparison, the Ivory Coast has a real sweetness coming out of it, both in the aroma and the flavor. It reminds me of the sharp sweetness I get out of some of the Ecuador roasts, but it's not quite the same. But it's really good. I would almost call it a "dusty sweetness" because of the earthiness that's in it. The Ivory Coast is the clear winner.
Adding vanilla almond milk to both, the Shadow's Silhouette hits that super chocolatey flavor that is starting to become normal. The Ivory Coast gets a little more chocolatey, and that dusty sweetness is still in there, but when I go back to the Shadow's Silhouette, it has just a teensy bit of that tartness to it, which takes down the flavor just a hair. Also, going back to the Ivory Coast, there's just a hint of bitterness there. This is such a close race, but I think I have to go with the Shadow's Silhouette as the winner.
This is my first comparison using the Nigeria, so I started by just taking in the aroma of both roasts. The Shadow's Silhouette has that baking brownies smell, but the Nigeria, which chocolaty, definitely also has a nutty smell to it. I know once upon a time I started describing Ivory Coast Medium as being nutty, but switched over to grainy because that fit better. But in this case, I really feel like the aroma and flavor are closer to some sort of nut.
As far as flavor, Shadow's Silhouette starts off decently chocolaty, but just a little tart. The Nigeria, in comparison, isn't nearly as chocolaty, but definitely has a strong nutty component to it. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, there's less tartness than there was before trying the Nigeria, and it is closer to a brownie flavor. Overall Nigeria is pretty good, and in spite of the brownie flavor of Shadow's Silhouette, I think Nigeria just eeks out a win.
With a little bit of vanilla almond milk in both, the Shadow's Silhouette does the usual super chocolaty thing, and it's soooooo goooooood. The Nigeria seems to be doing something similar, although the first sip is a bit washed out, which is weird because I really didn't put that much in. But there's a pretty good chocolate flavor there, and while the nutty flavor can still be detected, it takes a back seat. But that nutty flavor is just enough for the Nigeria to carve out a spot of distinction between the two roasts. Also, the nuttiness is somewhat prominent in the aroma, and with that, it almost reminds me a little bit of the sweetness I pick out of some of the Ecuador roasts. When going back to the Shadow's Silhouette after the Nigeria, the tartness comes back through a little bit, but goes away fairly quickly. This is a pretty close and tough call. I think the tartness is hurting Shadow's Silhouette just a little bit here, and the Nigeria is actually scraping out a win!
The Shadow's Silhouette decided to start off fairly tart this time, both in aroma and flavor. As always, there's a decent chocolate component there that doesn't otherwise lean earthy or pungent, but it just the tartness that seems to come and go. The Nigeria is really roasty and smoky, and there's not much of any other flavor coming out of it. In spite of the tartness of Shadow's Silhouette, I'd have to go with it as the winner as I just really don't like the extreme smoky flavor of the Nigeria.
With vanilla almond milk in both, the Shadow's Silhouette still has some tartness in the aroma, but the flavor is pure chocolate. The Nigeria still as a lot of smoke in the flavor, but the vanilla does bring out a little bit of the nutty and chocolaty flavors. Even with that being the case, I'm still not a fan. Shadow's Silhouette still wins by a mile.
Starting with the Shadow's Silhouette, I can kind of sense the tartness in the aroma, but the flavor seems very light this morning. I don't think I made it differently than usual. Maybe my mouth is taking a while to wake up this morning? I can tell that it's decently chocolatey, but it's neither the tart flavor nor the brownie flavor that I normally expect. Going over to the Volta, the aroma is definitely more earthy, as is the flavor. It also seems a bit on the light side, so I think it's me. They're both good, but with them having such a light flavor, I think I'm calling it a tie.
With vanilla almond milk in both of them, the Shadow's Silhouette now comes across as quite chocolatey. The earthiness of the Volta is toned down a bit, and I can make out some extra chocolatey flavor there, too. They've both been improved, but the Shadow's Silhouette is definitely the winner.
The Volta starts off with that familiar somewhat earthy, lightly smoky and slightly chocolatey flavor and aroma. The Shadow's Silhouette next to it is more chocolatey and slightly bready, but has that "brownie" flavor and aroma. It's really good. Oh, but going back to the Volta, it gets this slightly sweeter flavor, a little akin to the lighter Ecuador roasts, and that's really good, too. This race just became a lot closer. Ah, but I'm finding that if I go back to the Shadow's Silhouette too quickly after the Volta, it starts getting that tart flavor and starts moving away from the brownie flavor. And if I wait too long after the Shadow's Silhouette, the Volta goes back to the original earthy flavor. It's difficult to call, but I think that the tartness that seems to be sticking with the Shadow's Silhouette is bringing it down, so the Volta wins out just by a hair.
Adding vanilla almond milk to both, the Shadow's Silhouette gets really chocolatey, but so does the Volta. Wow! Another super close race. The Volta retains just the absolute tiniest amount of that smoky flavor, which makes the chocolatey flavor slightly different. They're both stunning, and I think it may be a tie.
I noticed that while these two are sitting here cooling, I've been getting some nice whiffs of chocolate here and there. That's always fun when that happens.
I'm not sure if it's because I did the Shadow's Silhouette comparison with Choffy's Ecuador French roast earlier today, but the first sip of Shadow's Silhouette is tart, but also more in that range of fermented and bready than chocolatey. Volta's aroma is very ashy in comparison, and the flavor, while not quite as bad as the aroma, is still pretty charred and ashy. It's not quite the campfire ash flavor that it used to be, but it's close. There may be just the tiniest bit of chocolate flavor in it, but it's absolutely buried by the strong smoky flavors. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, it makes the fermented flavor and the tartness a lot stronger than before. I don't like either one when paired up like this. I think I would just barely pick the Volta over the Shadow's Silhouette just because I think I could tolerate the ashy and smoky flavor more than the tart fermentation.
With the vanilla almond milk, Shadow's Silhouette goes super chocolatey again. It just blows me away how chocolatey it gets every single time, but especially after it's been tart or fermented tasting. The Volta is still amazingly ashy and smoky tasting. I thought maybe some chocolate flavor would come up, but maybe because of it being right next to the uber-chocolatey Shadow's Silhouette, it's just not there. This is more like ashes with water mixed in. Blech. The Shadow's Silhouette is the clear winner by about 600 miles.
When comparing Shadow's Silhouette previously, I'd noted that while it was cooling, it smelled a bit like brownies baking. While that was still true this time around, next to the roasty aroma of Anakin, Shadow's Silhouette seemed more muddy and undefined.
Tasting them, Anakin has a sharper and more pungent flavor. The Shadow's Silhouette is a little milder, a little more fruity, and quite a bit more chocolatey. Also, I must be getting used to the much darker roasts, because I'm finding that I actually can drink then both black if I wanted. The first time I tried Anakin, I basically thought "no way could I do that," but today it was quite good.
Adding vanilla almond milk to them both made them pretty similar. On top of that, this is a new batch of Anakin, and I'm sad to report that I didn't get that toasted marshmallow flavor this time around. I'm not sure if that flavor was maybe hindered by the comparison with Shadow's Silhouette or if it's really not there. I also noticed that it's reminding me just a bit of Choffy Ecuador French or Dark roasts. I'll wind up doing a comparison with one or both of those against Anakin in the future.
Overall I still like Anakin more, but I have to say that Shadow's Silhouette really is a close runner-up, and if I ever happen into another gift card for Chocolate Alchemy, I may get that one, or split it with a smaller Anakin order.
As noted in my first impression #4, Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is much darker in appearance, both for the dry grounds as well as the brewed liquid. Before brewing, Long Dark was so pungent it was almost off-putting. I wasn't sure what I was smelling, but I wasn't a fan of it. On the other hand, Shadow's Silhouette was definitely more fruity and nutty and quite a bit lighter.
Once they were both brewed, I noticed that the smell of Long Dark was tamed quite a bit, but still very roasty, and I thought it smelled very strongly of coffee. I had Em come over and take a whiff, and she agreed that it smelled like coffee, but "not coffee I would pick." Haha!
When it came to the first taste, I was not a fan of either one when drinking them black. Long Dark is definitely more coffee like, and Shadow's Silhouette has some flavor that seemed slightly familiar but I couldn't place it. I think it does come across as more chocolatey, though. As I sipped them, I started to get used to drinking both of them black, but I'm unsure if I could drink either black all the time as the normal way to drink them.
When I got about halfway done, I decided to add my vanilla almond milk to them and see how they did. I may have added too much almond milk, though The flavors got really washed out. Long Dark still had that tart and pungent smell, but the flavor was still heavily roasted and leaned only a tiny bit to that toasted marshmallow of Anakin. For the Shadow's Silhouette, the chocolatey flavor came out a little more and wound up much milder.
Between the two, I think I like Shadow's Silhouette more overall.
Note: This is technically a rematch. I did this same pairing yesterday, but it turned out I had everything mixed up in multiple ways! I had the brews switched from what I thought they were, and when I tried to the rebrewing, I crossed the new grounds with the old ones, making everything taste the same. No wonder I was so confused.
While waiting for them to cool, I took a few whiffs of each, and I noticed that Shadow's Silhouette does have that "brownies in the oven" smell. Ancillary Darkness smelled more like coffee, and was dark and bitter. The Shadow's Silhouette flavor was milder and more chocolatey, but Ancillary Darkness had a strong pungency to it that was really hard to drink black. It grew on me a little bit as I kept going, but it was hard at first, and I'm not sure if it's something I could do often. The Shadow's Silhouette, though, isn't too bad to drink black.
After adding just a tiny little bit of vanilla almond milk, Shadow's Silhouette came out even more chocolatey. I'm considering running it against Crio Bru Ecuador French to see which is more chocolatey. Also, I may also keep some to compare against Anakin when I get more of that. (which should be soon-ish. Sam is sending me a gift card for Chocolate Alchemy!)
Even with adding vanilla almond milk to Ancillary Darkness, it still tastes very roasted. It loses a lot of the bitter and pungency, and is much more drinkable, but it's not the "toasted marshmallow" of Anakin.
I decided to go ahead and also try rebrewing the same grounds and add an extra tablespoon of new grounds to each. Ancillary Darkness seemed to stick really pretty close to the original, but Shadow's Silhouette came out fairly weak, so I wouldn't rebrew that one in the future.
Adding almond milk with the rebrewed Ancillary Darkness seemed to pretty much perform as above, coming out with the roasty flavor. It maybe leans just slightly more towards the toasted marshmallow flavor of Anakin, but no much, as it's still way more roasty than marshmallowy, but it's decent.
As for the Shadow's Silhouette, adding almond milk to the already weaker brew just causes the flavor to get even more washed out and muddy. It's barely "weak hot chocolate" at this point.
One last little note on the Ancillary Darkness that I almost hate to mention, but I've noticed that both for my mixed up first round and this round, afterwards, I felt like I was burping it up for a number of hours after, and it was not a nice chocolatey flavor. It was the pungency that came through, but only that, and it almost went in the direction of garlic, onion or even slightly fishy. Yuck. Maybe it was because I had 2 cups of it and one wouldn't affect me as much, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to drink that one again.
This is the first comparison I've done with Foglifter, and I figured that the other heavy chocolate hitter known as Shadow's Silhouette would be the best place to start. As they're sitting here cooling, it just smells very chocolatey in here, like I have a little oven with fresh brownies baking while I'm also making fudge.
In tasting them, they are both very chocolatey, and it's nice to see that the Foglifter doesn't seem to be bringing out any tartness in the Shadow's Silhouette. Actually, that may be flipped. Shadow's Silhouette may be bringing out just a hair of tartness in the Foglifter. Either way, these are both really good... and they're actually quite close in flavor and aroma. Really close. As in, it's really hard to tell them apart. I'm really trying to pay attention to the differences, but there are hardly any. There might be just the absolute tiniest bit of the sharp sweetness that I pick up sometimes in the Ecuador roasts lurking in Shadow's Silhouette, but I'm not sure if my brain is just making that up. The only other difference is the little bit of extra tartness in Foglifter that I mentioned earlier. But even with those tiny differences, I think I have to call this a tie. I delicious tie.
With vanilla almond milk in both of them, Shadow's Silhouette is pure chocolate flavor, while Foglifter still has some tartness, and while it's all chocolate, it seems weaker than Shadow's Silhouette. They're both really good, but Shadow's Silhouette wins here.