Somewhat bitter and a little flat
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:
Not recommended. Fairly bitter flavor.
General Thoughts:
For a while this one seemed to have a lot in common with Crio Bru's Venezuelan and Nicaraguan Medium roasts, and I felt like it was pretty low in my preference list. I'm currently waiting for another order with more Volta Medium in it so I can test it better.
The Volta is decently chocolatey and kind of mild, and the Ecuador has that sweeter "tang" to it, and the chocolatey flavor seems a bit stronger. There are no surprises and there's not really much to say here that I haven't said about either one in other comparisons except that I prefer the Ecuador over the Volta.
I did get the chance to blend the last couple of sips, and the end result is that weird bland no-man's land of flavor. The earthiness of the Volta and the sweet tang of the Ecuador are both gone and replaced by "meh".
Starting with the Volta, it's chocolatey, mild, and a little earthy. The Ecuador has the normal pungency and "tang", but being the french roast, it also has a good bit of roast to it. But it's not the same as the darker roasts from Choffy. Those are more harsh, whereas this mingles quite well with the Ecuador flavor creating a nice chocolatey treat. I like both of these quite a bit, but when I think about drinking them both long term, something about the flavors side-by-side like this while drinking them black that makes me almost want to say it's a tie. I know I prefer the Ecuador with a little bit of vanilla almond milk in it to really bring out that chocolatey flavor, and that would win over the Volta, both with and without the almond milk. But like this... Hmmm.... this is really tough. It's SO close, but I think drinking them black, I actually like the Volta just the tiniest bit more than the Ecuador!
After my discovery that the Choffy Volta and Crio Bru Ghana varieties all hail from the Volta region of Ghana, I needed to do this.
I gave the dry grounds an initial sniff as I was spooning them into the french presses, and they smelled exactly the same. Once they were brewed and I took another sniff, and the only difference I can maybe pick out is that there is a tiny bit of the darker roast of the Volta coming out, but it's so slight that it could be my imagination.
In terms of taste, I keep trying to pick out differences, but so far there aren't any. Not even roast level seems to have made a difference. They both have that "slightly less grainy than Ivory Coast" flavor to them, and I just can't tell them apart. I think this may be the first true tie since I got my brewing methods dialed in. It definitely makes me think I may need to redo any of the side-by-sides prior to round 13 where I featured Volta Medium. (an possibly more)
Taking a quick whiff of the aroma of each, the Ghana predictably has the stronger aroma, which has both a little more roast to it, but also some sweetness. In tasting them, the Volta is a little on the flat side. It's a little chocolatey, but there's just not much else going on. The Ghana, on the other hand, matches the aroma, and the roast is stronger, obviously, but it comes across as more chocolatey and hits slightly sweeter, too. Going back to the Volta, I'm also picking up a little more of the earthy quality, which doesn't seem to be in the Ghana for whatever reason. Ghana is the winner here.
I only had about a sip of each left for blending, but the end result was decently chocolatey, but seemed to retain a little bit of that sweeter flavor from the Ghana. It wasn't too bad!
With the slight difference now spotted between the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan origins, it's time to separate out the Volta medium from them for good. Oddly enough, these two have never been compared... UNTIL NOW! Dun dun dunnnnn.
The dry grounds smelled nearly identical to both. Once brewed, the Nicaraguan has a smell that's closer to "plain" dark chocolate, even leaning a bit towards bitter, whereas the Volta has that lightly grainy smell to it. The taste pretty much mirrors that. The difference between the two is subtle. Kind of like I found when comparing the Nicaraguan against the Venezuelan directly, it's more identifiable in terms of what is missing rather than what it has going for it. The Volta is a little grainy, and the Nicaraguan just... isn't. It's dark in terms of chocolate, but not in terms of roast. It's not bad, it's just that there's nothing exciting about it. With that extra little bit of flavor, the Volta stands out as one I would like to drink more.
Surprisingly, this was more of the same. There was a slight flavor difference between the two, but I'm not 100% sure it wasn't the brewing method (french press) winning out over the actual flavor.
I swapped the brewing methods so that the Volta got the tea infuser and the Venezuelan got the french press, and they're still mostly the same. The Venezuelan may be a tiny bit "smoother" or a tiny bit less bitter, but otherwise they're nearly identical.
Since getting my brewing methods evened out starting with round 14 (Crio Bru Ghana Light vs Choffy Ivory Coast Medium) and knowing that Volta Medium should have a little bit of a grainy flavor, I wanted to compare these two one last time.
The initial sniff test is still very close, but the Volta seems to be leaning slightly more towards earthy/grainy and Venezuela has that tiny bit of pungency that I noted when I last compared it to the Nicaraguan. There may be something else, too. Maybe almost like an absence of something I'm picking up in the Volta.
When it comes to tasting, these two really are very, very similar. The difference between them is so slight that I have to concentrate with a lot of effort in order to pick out a difference. The main difference is that the Venezuelan is slightly more bitter and slightly less grainy. But that's really about it. Between the two, I have a slight preference for the Volta Medium, as it comes across as slightly more chocolatey to me.
This is another one of the times where the lighter roast has a little bit of a buttery taste next to the Uber Dark. So I'm starting to think that rather than a particular origin being the culprit, it's actually a characteristic of cocoa beans themselves. Maybe that was the problem with Chocolate Alchemy's Big O for me. Maybe it was too light.
Anyway, between these two, there's the obvious roast level difference, but in trying to see beyond that, the Uber Dark has a sharper and more punchy flavor. It's not quite spicy, but pungent doesn't seem to quite cover it, either. I really think Uber Dark is starting to grow on me a bit, but even if that's the case, it's still not getting ranked over anything else as of now. The Volta, with it's lighter, more buttery, and slightly chocolatey flavor still wins out.
I blended the last quarter or so of each cup, and it's mostly "more of the same" as other times I've done it. This time around the roasty flavor of the Uber Dark sticks around more than previously, but it's subdued. The Volta doesn't seem to have any characteristics that stand out in the blend. It's not like it's more chocolatey or more buttery. It's just "less Uber Dark", really.
Starting with the Ocumare first, it has the usual bitter, earthy, and chocolatey thing going on. Going to the Volta right after, it's pretty different from how I've ever experienced it before, but I'm not sure if I can explain it well. I think there's a flavor that would normally be earthy, but it's coming out a little more on the sweeter grainy side, but for some reason there's also maybe a little bit of a buttery flavor in there, plus just an ever so slightly bready or fermented flavor, with just a little dash of chocolate. I think what seems weird about it is that it's a really complex flavor that I've just never gotten from the Volta before. An no matter how many times I go back and forth between the Ocumare and the Volta, it stays the same. It's really interesting! But I will say that I think the stronger bitterness of the Ocumare hurts it in the comparison, and the Volta wins out in the end.
The Mexico is starting off with some tartness and chocolate, but there's a good bit of bitterness in there this time around. It reminded me of something else for a brief moment, but now it seems to be eluding me. The Volta is slightly earthy, but more on the lighter and grainy side this time. It's also just the slightest bit buttery, almost like a freshly baked croissant, and there's a decent amount of chocolate flavor to it this time. Going back to the Mexico, the tartness is stronger, but the chocolate and bitter are a little diminished. I prefer the Volta quite a bit over the Mexico.
Adding vanilla almond milk to just the Mexico for now, it comes out as strongly chocolaty on the first sip, but there's also a slight tartness that is leaning more into what I'd call sour. The Volta actually seems a little more chocolaty than it did at first, too, even though I haven't added anything yet. The "croissant" flavor is gone, but it still has the grainy flavor and a good bit of chocolate. Going back to the Mexico, surprisingly it doesn't seem to be affected by the Volta right now. It's still very chocolaty, and if anything, the tartness has gone away. The Mexico is the winner for this one.
Adding a splash of almond milk to the Volta, the flavor is now a little lighter and leaning even more into a sweet grainy flavor, but I'm a little surprised to find that the chocolate flavor seems to be diminished. Going back to the Mexico, there's a tiny hint of the tartness coming back, but it's still very chocolaty. Huh. Between the sweeter grainy flavor of the Volta and the stronger chocolate flavor of the Mexico, these are really close as far as preference. The tartness hurts the Mexico, and the lack of chocolate hurts the Volta. I think I have to consider this one a tie!
Also, it's worth noting, I had walked away from my desk for an extended period, and the last sip of each had gotten cold, and... blech. I'm not a fan at all.
The Volta does start out decently chocolatey with maybe just a hint of an earthy flavor, and switching to the Ecuador really brings out that sweet-almost-spicy flavor, but my brain doesn't equate it with chocolatey. Switching back to the Volta, the earthy flavor becomes quite strong, along with a hint of buttery in the aroma, but it feels like it's also goes more bitter. I like the Volta more, although it's close because once the comparison starts in earnest, I actually like the Volta flavor and aroma less than when I started with it. It's not to say that I dislike it at all, but something about the Ecuador next to it seems to make the Volta a bit more "meh". It does retain a good bit of chocolatey flavor, though, which is good, but it's very much more of a dark and bitter chocolate.
I blended the last third of each cup, and the result is very similar to the Ivory Coast Dark blend where there's a chocolatey flavor, but most of the identifying characteristics of each roast gets thrown out the window. There may be the tiniest hint of Ecuador's sweet pungency in the aroma, but you have to really be looking for it, and it doesn't come out in the flavor at all. The flavor, if anything, leans ever so slightly in the direction of the Volta, having the slightest of bitterness to it, with a decent chocolate flavor. Oh, interesting! After letting it sit for a minute or two while I went to look at something, when I came back to it, I could taste a bit of the sweet pungency of the Ecuador in the initial sip, but it goes away after that.
When I start with the Volta Medium roast, I'm almost always reminded of when I first started this journey because it was one of the first ones that I was using as a basis to compare against everything else. It has that dark chocolate and lightly bitter flavor, and it's just really good, even if it often loses to other roasts just because they offer something more interesting. Comparing to the Ecuador, the Ecuador has that sharp and sour and roasty flavor that almost comes across as "fried" in this context. I've had that happen before where I went "ah! it's like bacon!" This is another time where I get a little hint of that. Moving back to the Volta after the Ecuador, it starts taking on that grainy and buttery flavor. It's not quite as intense as the Ivory Coast medium, but it's there. This is definitely more chocolatey. Volta is the winner by quite a margin here.
Blending the last quarter of each cup, this is one of the more "snap to the middle" instances in terms of aroma and flavor. I may be able to pick out a tiny bit of the roasty or pungent quality of the Ecuador, but I feel like I'm also getting a little bit of the chocolatey or earthy flavor and aroma of the Volta. It's an ok blend, and definitely makes the Ecuador more drinkable.
These two are somewhat similar. The Volta is a little more bitter and maybe a hair more earthy, and just a little more chocolatey. The Ivory Coast is lighter and more on the grainy flavor side, and a little less chocolatey. There are no surprises here. I think side-by-side, I prefer the Ivory Coast even though it's less representative of most brewing cocoas.
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.
The Volta is somewhat chocolatey and lightly bitter. The Ivory Coast has more of a roasty flavor, but is still chocolatey, and both the flavor and the aroma just kind of have more depth to it. I'm a little surprised that the Ivory Coast didn't come across with a stronger flavor. Both lean a bit earthy. Going back and forth to the Volta, the aroma isn't as nice. Towards the end I was noticing that buttered bread aroma to it that I've seen sometimes in the lighter roasts. I think the Ivory Coast is the winner for this round.
The Nigeria is leading in with no surprises again. It's a little chocolaty in the aroma, but the flavor is mostly burnt nut, smoky, and somewhat bitter. The Volta is a little different than I'm used to, though, because along with being a little earthy and chocolaty, it also has just the slightest fermented and bready flavor with a little bit of tartness to it. Going back to the Nigeria after it, there was a strange, almost licorice flavor to it for a brief second, but then it went back to primarily smoky and burnt nut and bitterness. Even with the tart breadiness of the Volta, it's the winner.
Adding a splash of vanilla almond milk to the Nigeria first, it gets the now expected chocolaty and nutty flavor, and most but of the burnt and smoke flavors are pushed way back. I wish the french roast version did this. Sigh... Anyway, comparing it against the black Volta, I have to say that the Nigeria wins here. It's really pretty good.
With a splash of almond milk in the Volta, it gets a much stronger chocolate flavor with just a hint of earthiness. I think it would be easy to overdo it with the almond milk in this one, though, and completely wash it out. Sipping the Nigeria after it brings some of the burnt nut flavor back to the forefront, but overall it's still fairly chocolaty and pretty good. This one is a really close call. The chocolate flavor of the Nigeria is a little richer with some warmth to it due to the nuttiness mixed in, and the chocolate flavor of the Volta is a little more one dimensional but much closer to what I would think of as a "dark chocolate" if I were comparing it to a chocolate bar or something. As I go back and forth, the burnt nut flavor of the Nigeria just keeps hanging out there in the background, and I think that's hurting it. I think the Volta wins by just a hair.
This is the first one where I don't think I would have had to try them side-by-side in order to taste the difference. The Volta Dark is labeled as "chocolatey and smoky", and they aren't kidding. This is the first one where I immediately thought, "oh no, this tastes a lot like coffee. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish this." But I did, and it actually wasn't bad.
Reading the initial side-by-side results, it's interesting to see how my taste and my opinions have changed! I did a rematch because the first test was done back when I was using a poorly chosen tea infuser as one of the brewing methods, and I wanted to do this on a more even playing field. Also, at that time I was brewing for 10 minutes, but now I'm down to 8 minutes.
Right out of the gate, the medium roast tastes a little weak, even before comparing it to the dark roast. The dark roast, surprisingly, also comes out a little weak, but I think that may be because I've spent the last few weeks doing side-by-sides of Crio Bru that have added flavors. Either that, or both of these may actually need a little longer brewing time. There's a definite smoky flavor to it to the dark roast, and while it's not the "toasted" flavor of something like Chocolate Alchemy's Anakin, it's good. But other than that, the medium and dark roasts are pretty darn close, and I definitely no longer think of the dark roast as being "a lot like coffee". Overall I like the dark roast a little more than the medium roast.
Going first with the Medium roast, I'd say it's lightly chocolatey and a little bitter, and switching over to the French roast, it's very smoky. After sipping on it for a bit and then going back to the Medium roast, the Medium has a lightly buttery or bready flavor, along with being somewhat earthy. It doesn't seem as bitter at this point. The French roast is so smoky, it's almost like cigarette smoke in this comparison, rather than campfire. I heavily prefer the Medium over the French.
I blended the last third of each cup, and there's some smokiness to it, and just a little bit of earthiness, although I'm not sure that I would say it comes across as chocolatey at all. Besides smoky and earthy, it's really quite indistinct for something that's supposed to be the same thing with just a different roasting level.
Out of the gate, Volta is more chocolatey and way less bitter, and in comparison, Anakin is super roasty and almost hard to drink. Drinking black, Volta wins.
Once I added vanilla almond milk to the Anakin, it was way better than the Volta. Somehow the Volta comes across as more bitter, which surprised me a bit.
I was able to add some almond milk to the Volta as well, but it really washes it out. It's a little chocolatey, but barely. It's mostly just bland. In comparison, Anakin with the almond milk picks up a little more bitterness in comparison, but I still like it better.
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.