"This."
Amount of grounds:
2 tablespoons per 10 oz of water
Brewing time:
8.5 minutes
Additions:
None
Reusing grounds:
Not tested
Using grounds in food:
A little on the bitter side to use.
General Thoughts:
Another Choffy description that pretty much nailed it.
I don't think there are any real surprises here. The Ivory Coast is earthy and a little chocolatey with maybe just a hint of roasty, and the Ecuador is bright, and chocolatey and a little buttery. Although I really like the Ivory Coast, I like that extra "zip" in the Ecuador more, and it's my preference between the two.
I blended the last couple of sips and found the end result to be extremely flat. Nothing about it stands out at all.
I felt like there's a grainy quality I've been having with the Ecuador French, and I wanted to see how it compares against Ivory Coast. I opted for the Dark roast because I think the roast level matches more.
I have to say that these two are surprisingly similar. I think the roast level is spot on, which is making me think more that Crio Bru's roasts are lighter compared to their Choffy counterparts. The Ivory Coast definitely has that earthiness to it, but the pungency that I've come to expect with the Ecuador roasts is hardly found at all here. I can pick it up if I really try, and it's in the smell more than the flavor, but the grainy and earthy qualities seem to be coming out more to pair up with the Ivory Coast.
Between the two, I like the Ecuador French roast just a tiny bit more. It's the stronger chocolatey flavor that comes out due to the slight pungency that does it for me.
This needed a rematch because of the changes in the new batch of the Ecuador French.
That grainy quality I thought was in the Ecuador roast originally is nowhere to be found in this new batch. Now it just seems to be a basic Ivory Coast vs Ecuador comparison. The Ivory Coast Dark is pretty mild, a little chocolatey, and has that grainy and earthy flavor that lingers about. The Ecuador is stronger and sharper, but it doesn't seem to have that much darker of a roast to it, so they're still close in that respect. The chocolate flavor in the Ecuador seems to be closer to dark chocolate than the Ivory Coast.
Since it's the weekend, I added vanilla almond milk to both. For the Ivory Coast, it strengthens both the grainy and chocolate flavors, with the grainy flavor getting particularly strong. That was interesting, but it's pretty decent. The Ecuador, on the other hand, gets that "closer to hot chocolate" flavor. I think it has to do with what I said earlier about the quality of the Ecuador's chocolate flavor seeming to be more like dark chocolate.
It's still a close race between the two, but I think I still prefer the Ecuador over the Ivory Coast, regardless of the addition of the almond milk.
These two are really close in flavor. Ivory Coast as a slightly darker and earthier aroma, whereas the Ghana has almost just a hair of that sharp brightness that the Ecuador Light roast has, and The Ivory Coast may be just a hair more chocolatey. I think the closeness of the two kind of wipes out the earthy or grainy flavor that the Ghana usually demonstrates. I think I prefer the Ghana by just the tiniest bit, but it mainly comes down to aroma rather than flavor.
These two are really close. In fact they're so close that they're almost indistinguishable. Ivory Coast has the signature earthy flavor and aroma. The Ghana isn't quite as earthy, and the aroma is a little sweeter, although it doesn't come across in the flavor. Well... maybe it does, but it's only by a tiny amount. But that's enough to declare Ghana the winner by a hair.
Starting with the Nicaragua, it's back to the usual lightly bitter and fairly chocolatey flavors. It also has a little bit of that sourness in the background, but it's not too bad today. (After the Volta and Ivory Coast french roast comparisons yesterday, I was worried it was going to be gross like it was yesterday.) The Ivory Coast is pretty earthy in comparison, and not really chocolatey at all. It kind of just reminds me of a dusty and dry wheat field today. Going back to the Nicaragua, it's even more bitter and is starting to get that fermented and sour bready flavor again. I'm kind of starting to wonder if this is going to be one like Anakin or Choffy Ecuador French where it's primarily drinkable only after I add vanilla almond milk to it. I might test that later today when I compare against the Volta Dark. But if that's the case, I really need to be reworking my spreadsheet to allow for those additions in terms of ranking. Anyway, in spite of the Ivory Coast not being exciting next to the Nicaragua, I still prefer it.
Huh. I'm not sure if maybe I mixed up my roasts, but the flavors aren't quite what I expected. Oh! No, no I didn't. Ok, this is really interesting. I took a sip of the Ivory Coast first, and it had the familiar earthy flavor. But when I took a sip of the Venezuela, the aroma was a bit sour, and the flavor almost seemed more earthy at first. But when I switch and go back the other way, from Venezuela to Ivory Coast, it becomes very clear that the second one is Ivory Coast. Like with the french roast, it comes across as more grainy and slightly sweeter. The Venezuela, in comparison, really comes out mostly as bitter, with a bit of a stronger pungent flavor to it than I've been picking up recently. I hesitate to say that it tastes more chocolatey, though. The bitterness is surprisingly strong here. The Ivory Coast is the winner in this pairing by quite a bit, even though I wouldn't call it "typical" for a chocolate flavor.
I blended the last couple of sips of each one (less than a quarter of a mug total) and the aroma has both the bitter quality of the Venezuela and the earthy quality of the Ivory Coast to it, but the flavor turns into a fairly flat dark chocolate flavor.
Sipping the Ivory Coast Dark first, it's pretty much as the description says: a little chocolatey and kind of earthy or grainy. Drinking the Uber Dark right after it is pretty much as expected: super roasty and dark. When I go back to the Ivory Coast, it seems to lose most of the chocolate flavor and goes mainly to earthy. It's a pretty stark difference between the two, but drinking them side by side like this makes neither one terribly enjoyable. I'd go with the Ivory Coast over the Uber Dark if I were just picking one to drink outside of the comparison.
Like with the Ivory Coast French roast, I was curious about what would happen if I mixed them, so I did that when I had them both just over halfway done. The effect is very similar to when I blended Uber Dark with Ivory Coast French, in that the whole thing mellows out in all directions. It's less roasty and less earthy. I'm not quite sure how to describe the end result except for "muddy". It has a flavor and an aroma, but I can't place it as anything specific, yet it's familiar at the same time. I think the aroma leans more towards the earthy side, even though the flavor doesn't seem to match it, and if I really concentrate, the flavor is slightly more in the roasty direction. Again, like the french roast blend, it's weird. It's decent, but it's hard to describe. I suppose there's some chocolatey flavor to it, but I kind of feel like the separate flavors prior to blending are still influencing my perception of it. I feel like to get a true sense of this one, I'd need to either blend the grounds before brewing, or brew a smaller amount of each and blend them immediately before tasting or smelling either one.
Starting off with the Ivory Coast, it has that sweeter earthy flavor with a little chocolate that has no surprises to it. Going to the Ocumare, not is it very bitter and very earthy, but I was struck by how it almost also tasted very darkly roasted even though it's a light roast. It almost reminded me a little of the charred flavor that I got from my first sample of Choffy's Volta French roast. How weird! Going back to the Ivory Coast, it's milder, sweeter, and the earthy flavor leans way more in the "grainy" flavor direction. I strongly prefer the Ivory Coast to the Ocumare here.
I blended the last little bit of each one, and it still has that very earthy and bitter aroma, but the flavor is quite a bit lighter. I'm not picking up on the sweeter flavor of the Ivory Coast in it. After letting it sit for a little longer, a lot of the Ocumare aromas died down and the whole thing just wound up being pretty flat.
Overall, whenever I come back to Ivory Coast Dark, it's always a good experience. There's just a hair of smokiness, a little bit of earthiness, and a little bit of chocolate. It's just really nice overall. Next to it, the Mexico is a bit tart and bitter, and I feel like I'm picking up less chocolate in it than usual. Next to it, the Ivory Coast almost tastes sweet, and I prefer it over the Mexico.
With a splash of vanilla almond milk in the Mexico, it's now very chocolaty with just a hint of tartness to it. The Ivory Coast next to it now has more of a dusty and earthy flavor, but it's still good. Overall, though, I think I prefer the Mexico, but it's kind of close.
Adding almond milk to the Ivory Coast, it's now coming across as more nutty and chocolaty than earthy. There's no smokiness it in it at this point, either. And oddly, the tartness seems to be mostly gone from the Mexico now, and it's more just a pure chocolate flavor. Even though the Ivory Coast is really good like this, I think Mexico still wins!
Starting with the Ivory Coast, it's pretty much exactly what the description says. It's lightly chocolatey and a little earthy. The Ecuador has a pretty good punch to it, and has that usual strong pungent and almost-but-not-quite-spicy flavor. The roasty side isn't standing out as much here, which is interesting. Going back to the Ivory Coast, it's also interesting to see how the flavor doesn't change at all.
What I mean is, often times when I'm comparing two roasts, I'll drink from one, then the other, and then go back to the first. When I get back to the first one for the second sip, the interaction of the flavors plus the "tiring out" of my tastebuds from both varieties tends to bring out other flavors or aromas that weren't evident on the first sip. For example, I've had other Ivory Coast cups where at first it tasted quite chocolatey with very little earthy or grainy flavors, but after drinking from the second brew and going back to the Ivory Coast, the chocolate flavor takes a back seat and the earthy qualities take center stage. That's not the case this time! This time both brews are holding their identities really well.
This time, I really like both of them pretty equally when just comparing them one to the other. I have to go with the longer range "drinking it for the long haul" view to decide that I'd pick the Ivory Coast over the Ecuador. It's a much closer race than I'd anticipated for this round.
I blended the last half of each cup, and the end result is more of the same where everything gets very muddy in flavor and none of the distinguishing flavors or aromas stand out anymore. It's somewhat chocolatey, but that's about it. The pungency, the earthiness, and the roast are all gone. It always strikes me as being so weird when that happens with two fairly strongly flavored varieties. I mean, it's good, but it's just... flat.
Starting with the Ivory Coast, it has a good chocolate flavor and is only slightly roasty in flavor. Like with the french roast version, it's very good. Switching over to the Ecuador, it's very strong and has a high coffee-like quality to it, comparatively. It doesn't taste like chocolate to me, and just has an almost sour roasty flavor. Each time I have it, I like it less and less. Going back to the Ivory Coast right after really brings out the earthy and grainy flavor, and the chocolatey flavor kind of takes a back seat. But I like it much more than the Ecuador. It's becoming quickly clear that, when drinking black, the Ecuador French roast is becoming on of my least favorite varieties.
Blending the last third of each cup, the end result still has quite a bit of the roast and pungency of the Ecuador, but without being overpowering like it is on its own. I don't know that I'd necessarily be able to identify it as having Ecuador in the blend if I didn't already know, but I can definitely pick it out for now. I don't really taste the earthiness of the Ivory Coast at all. But I will say that the aroma is quite chocolatey, which is nice.
Like with the Ghana French roast, these two are very similar. The dark roast seems only slightly darker and leans a little more on the earthy side. The aroma is also slightly more chocolatey. The medium roast is a little lighter, brighter, and more on the grainy side, with less chocolate in the mix. They're both really good, and the flavors are very close overall. I'm almost inclined to call it a tie, but I think the medium is just the tiniest bit more enjoyable to drink in the long run, so I'm calling it in favor of the medium.
I think the description for the Ivory Coast French roast is fairly accurate, especially when comparing it to the dark roast. The smell between the two is slightly different as well. The dark roast has that earthy smell to it, but it's almost like the french roast goes back to the nutty smell of the medium roast.
Overall the difference between the dark and french roasts of the Ivory Coast variety are much more subtle than the differences between the same roasts as the Volta variety. I still feel like I like the Ivory Coast better than the Volta overall, but I may need additional side-by-sides to compare Volta Dark to Ivory Coast Dark and Volta French vs Ivory Coast French.
This comparison was originally done before the brewing methods were evenly matched and I was brewing for a longer amount of time.
The dark roast has a little bit of that earthy flavor, but it's also decently chocolatey. As expected, the french roast is, well, more roasty. I feel like there might also be a tiny bit of something else leaning towards a tiny bit of almost "spicy", but that's not quite right. I guess it might just be the additional roast, or the "little smoky" that's in the description. It's good and I really like it.
I will say that I don't feel like I'm picking up a difference between "earthy" in the dark roast or "nutty" in the french roast anymore. That nutty/earthy quality now seems to be evened out that the brewing methods are better matched.
Between the two, I think I like the french roast just a little more. It's got a little extra something to to it that I really enjoy.
The Ivory Coast is starting off a little dusty and earthy, but surprisingly chocolaty this morning! I'm not sure what's different there, but it's nice. The Nigeria is... not as chocolaty? What's going on here? Did I mix these up or something? The Nigeria has a little bit of a bitter flavor to it, almost smoky, and I'm not picking up on the usual nuttiness. Going back and forth between the two doesn't seem to change anything. Assuming that these are correct, then the Ivory Coast is the winner.
I added a splash of vanilla almond milk to both of them at the same time, hoping that maybe that will help reconcile this. The Nigeria is now more chocolaty and with a bit of the nutty flavor. The Ivory Coast still has a little bit of a dusty earthy flavor to it, and isn't nearly as chocolaty. Huh. I guess I had them correct! The Nigeria wins pretty easily here.
Starting with Nigeria, it's the usual bitter concoction of burnt nut, smoke, with a whiff of chocolate mixed in. The Ivory Coast is earthy, even leaning a little bit into "beany" territory. The aroma is more earthy than anything, but there is some chocolate there. Not so much in the flavor, though. Going back over to the Nigera, the aroma comes across as even more burnt. The Ivory Coast is the clear winner here.
Adding vanilla almond milk only to the Nigeria first, it goes from smelling and tasting mostly like burnt nut to having a good bit more chocolate in the aroma, a lighter nuttiness coming out, but still with a hint of the burnt flavor and aroma lingering around. Drinking the Ivory Coast black next to it, it's taken on just a hint of a sweeter flavor and seems less beany now. I prefer the chocolate portion of the flavor of the Nigeria, but I think as an overall picture, I still prefer the Ivory Coast by just a hair.
Giving Ivory Coast just a splash of almond milk and comparing again, there's still a little bit of an earthy flavor and aroma to it, but there also seems to be just a little more chocolate to it, too. In comparison, the Nigeria still has a good bit of the burnt flavor coming back in, so in the end, I still prefer the Ivory Coast over the Nigeria.
These two are fairly similar, way more than I would have thought considering just how different Ivory Coast Medium roast is from anything else I've had.
The Ivory Coast Dark seems to have a little bit less of a bitter edge to it than the Volta, and it also has a tiny bit of that nutty aftertaste that the Ivory Coast Medium roast had, but it's much less pronounced. Like the description on the bag, I'd describe it as "earthy" rather than "grainy" or "nutty". I also kind of feel like the chocolate smell is slightly less pronounced than the Volta.
I'm doing this rematch because the first comparison was back when I was using my old tea infuser, which wasn't a fair match between it and a french press.
I'm still struck by the similarity of the aromas of these two as they're cooling. Even the dry grounds smelled very similar. I now know now that as a whole, Volta and Ivory Coast very close, regionally, but generally speaking their flavors tend to be different enough to be noticed.
Even drinking once cooled, these two are still remarkably similar. I still stand by what I said the first time around where the Volta has the slightest little bitter edge to it, and the Ivory Coast has a tiny bit of the grainy flavor to it, leaning slightly more toward earthy. Kind of like with the Ivory Coast medium roast, the earthy flavor has a note of familiarity that I can't quite place. The Volta as just a little more of a chocolate flavor to it, I think, but just barely.
In terms of picking a favorite, it's soooo close that I think I probably have to call it a tie.
Per the round comparing Ivory Coast Dark to Ivory Coast French, I was curious how these two compare. Also, given that I found out that Volta is from Ghana, which is geographically right next to Ivory Coast, it seems like these two should be a little similar.
Like the descriptions say, I can taste and smell a more smoky flavor from the Volta Dark and more earthy tones from the Ivory Coast Dark. But I don't think the "rich chocolatey" description is accurate for the Volta, though. Chocolate level seems to be about the same between the two.
This particular round was also done after the 3rd grounds reuse test where I used Volta French roast, and the Volta Dark is definitely way less bitter and charred tasting than the Volta French. I knew that already from the Volta Dark vs Volta French round, but it's interesting to note that the Volta Dark doesn't taste quite as dark as I remembered it.
Back to this round, these two are a lot closer than I would have thought during my previous tests, but not so close that in a side-by-side I would mistake them for being the same origin. I enjoy them both, and I can actually see wanting to keep some Volta Dark on hand to get that little bit of smoky flavor from time to time, but overall, I think I like the Ivory Coast Dark a little more.
(I got distracted in the brewing process, and while I poured the mug with the Ivory Coast at the correct time, I forgot about the Volta for an extra 3 to 5 minutes, so I'm already planning to redo this comparison.)
The Ivory Coast is decently chocolatey, a little earthy, and oddly, slightly buttery. This is the first time I've picked up that flavor in a dark roast. The Volta, on the other hand, has a very strong roasty flavor, almost going back to the campfire ash flavor I used to get back in the days of my first sample of it. Per my note above, I'm not 100% sure if this is due to overbrewing it or if it's the natural flavor. Although, after waiting a minute or so and trying it again before going back to the Ivory Coast, I'm not picking up on it nearly as much. It may actually be part of the comparison between the Ivory Coast and the Volta. Going back to the Ivory Coast, it now comes across as very earthy and less chocolatey. Between these two, I'd go with the Ivory Coast as the favorite because I'm just not excited by that campfire flavor.
I blended the last third of each cup, and there's still a lot of the roasty toasty campfire flavor in it, but otherwise it's mostly indistinct.
Due to overbrewing the Volta last time around, I wanted to do a fair rematch.
Like before, the Ivory Coast is decently chocolatey and a little earthy, but I didn't pick up on the buttery flavor at first this time. The Volta is much better this time around. It's still very roasty and smoky, but not campfire like anymore. When I go back to the Ivory Coast, I can pick up a little bit of the "buttery" in the aroma, but it's mostly quite earthy. Like before, the deeper into the cup I go, the more earthy the Ivory Coast seems, which is interesting. I think I still say the Ivory Coast is my preference between the two, although the Volta is much better this time around.
I did another blend of the last third of each cup, and it actually seems like it may have retained both the smoky quality of the Volta and the earthy quality of the Ivory Coast. That would be a first, I think. Hmmm. Or maybe the earthy quality is mostly in the aroma, not so much the flavor. It's still decently good.
I don't think that there were any real surprises here. Ivory Coast was somewhat chocolatey with just the tiniest hint of smoky, but that all went out the window when I tried Anakin. Anakin is, as expected, extremely strong compared to Ivory Coast, and it's pretty much all roast with little else. Drinking them black, I prefer Ivory Coast pretty strongly.
Adding vanilla almond milk to the Anakin, it gets the usual toasted marshmallow flavor, and even though it's quite toned down, the Ivory Coast tastes pretty flat next to it, and I prefer the Anakin quite a bit there.
I even had a little bit left to be able to add a little vanilla almond milk in the Ivory Coast, and it mostly just washes out the flavor, although it may have given the chocolatey flavor a bit of a boost. Even with that, I still prefer Anakin.
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.