A good combination of hazelnut and chocolate
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. Contains husk.
General Thoughts:
This is a pretty good flavor combination on its own, but when I did a side-by-side with the maple, it turned into something pretty magical, with the hazelnut flavor bridging the gap between the chocolate and the maple, which normally clashed a little. I could see getting this one again just so I could
The chocolatey flavor comes out a bit more in the hazelnut, and it has less sweetness to it while the caramel has more. It's mostly aroma driven, although there's a little bit to it in the taste, too, and I strongly prefer the caramel in spite of it being less chocolatey.
When I was comparing hazelnut to maple, I stumbled on the fact that the maple "clash" with the chocolate was solved by combining it with hazelnut. The chocolate, hazelnut, and maple all worked very harmoniously and I thought that it may give caramel a run for its money. So that's what I'm doing today: comparing "hazelmaple" to caramel.
It turns out, it almost depends on which one I drink first. If I drink the caramel first, the hazlemaple comes across as strongly maple and has a little bit of bitterness to it. If I drink the hazelmaple first, then the caramel tastes lighter, but also has a tiny bit of bitterness, or even tartness to it. The farther I get into both, the more it seems to even out to a certain degree, but that tartness stays in the caramel. These are both excellent flavors, but the hazelnut pretty much goes missing in the flavor altogether.
As for which one I like more, it's a really tough call. I'm not a fan of the tartness of the caramel, but I also prefer the caramel flavor to the maple. I think with the hazelmaple not having that tart flavor, I'm going to have to say that it's the winner!
Oddly, starting out, the hazelnut didn't seem to have much hazelnut flavor when drinking it against the cinnamon. Something about the cinnamon just made the hazelnut taste chocolatey. As I progressed through the cups the difference became stronger, but I just thought it was an interesting first note. I like the hazelnut better than the cinnamon either way.
Starting with the Hazelnut, it has the strong hazelnut aroma, but also the strong chocolate aroma because of the way the hazelnut accentuates it. In terms of pairing the brewing cocoa with an added flavor, this has to be one of the most well done. It's not my favorite flavor, but they just work so well together. The flavor pretty much matches the aroma, being both the distinctive hazelnut flavor, but also chocolaty. Going to the Highlander Grogg, the aroma is more strongly butterscotch and Irish cream with the hazelnut dropping to the deep background. It's still there helping things along, but it's not front and center like the Hazelnut brew. The flavors match that pretty well. There's a little bit of chocolate, and then the much stronger Irish cream flavor, with hints of butterscotch, and farther back, hazelnut. Going back to the Hazelnut, it had an interesting moment in the aroma where it almost reminded me of kettle corn! It was both sweet and savory and had a little bit of a popcorn aroma to it. It's even in the flavor a little bit. Wow, that's really interesting and unexpected! It's really good, too. Like with the comparison of Highlander Grogg to the Caramel roast, it's a very close and very tough call. The light bitterness of the Highlander Grogg is good and adds a bit of flair, but the Hazelnut is just cozy and comforting. I love both of these, but I think if I look at it for long term drinking and which one I may get tired of faster, I think I'd have to go with the Hazelnut as the winner by a hair.
Oh now this is an interesting combination! In my head, maple and hazelnut aren't at all the same, but I have to try a lot harder than I thought I would to tell the difference between the two. What's more, the maple and hazelnut flavors work really well together! I think what's happening is that the way the hazelnut naturally brings out the chocolate flavor also teases it out more of the maple blend. But I think the nutty flavor of the hazelnut is doing double duty and bridges the gap between the chocolate and the maple, and the three together really make for cohesive and delicious experience.
I could see taking a scoop of each and putting them in the same cup and coming out with something really tasty. I did not expect that at all. In fact, for the last little bit, I poured the maple into the hazelnut and mixed them before drinking them. It's possible that this combo may even give the caramel variety a run for it's money, but I don't have any more maple to find out. :-(
Just this alone makes me want to declare the comparison a tie, because it's really hard to pick one out over the other. I think another thing that I'm surprised about is how even though maple has a little bit of a clashy taste with the chocolate normally, it really was elevated by this round. But individually, I think I'd have to go with the hazelnut as the winner.
When I was comparing hazelnut to maple, I stumbled on the fact that the maple "clash" with the chocolate was solved by combining it with hazelnut. The chocolate, hazelnut, and maple all worked very harmoniously and I thought that it may give caramel a run for its money. So that's what I'm doing today: comparing "hazelmaple" to caramel.
It turns out, it almost depends on which one I drink first. If I drink the caramel first, the hazlemaple comes across as strongly maple and has a little bit of bitterness to it. If I drink the hazelmaple first, then the caramel tastes lighter, but also has a tiny bit of bitterness, or even tartness to it. The farther I get into both, the more it seems to even out to a certain degree, but that tartness stays in the caramel. These are both excellent flavors, but the hazelnut pretty much goes missing in the flavor altogether.
As for which one I like more, it's a really tough call. I'm not a fan of the tartness of the caramel, but I also prefer the caramel flavor to the maple. I think with the hazelmaple not having that tart flavor, I'm going to have to say that it's the winner!
When I first sipped from the Maya and then from the hazelnut, I was surprised that my knee-jerk reaction was that I liked the Maya better. But all of that changed when I went back to the Maya. "False alarm!" :-D I think what happened was that because of the cayenne in the Maya, my mouth was still feeling a little spicy from it when I sipped the hazelnut, and my brain didn't know what to make of spicy hazelnut. I do prefer the hazelnut, but there needs to be a little bit of time in between sips to make sure that there's not too much cross contamination.
This one is a little interesting. The initial taste tests were a lot closer than I imagined they'd be, but as I move between them, the hazelnut has a richness and depth of flavor to it that, as noted in other side-by-sides, results in a stronger chocolate flavor. When I go back to the mocha, the flavor is almost hollow in comparison. It's still doing that thing where it starts chocolatey but finishes cigarette smoky, but next to the hazelnut, there doesn't seem to be much more than that. The hazelnut, with the extra nuttiness in it feels more well rounded. Har har.
This is another where there's not a lot to say. The added flavors are quite different, obviously. The hazelnut has a flavor that reminds me more of chocolate than the peppermint does, and in this context, the peppermint has less of that "chemical" flavor to it than in previous pairings. I prefer the hazelnut over the peppermint by quite a bit.
The Hazelnut is better than I thought it would be. I never really liked the smell of the hazelnut flavoring when it came to coffee, to the point of almost trying to actively avoid it if I smelled it. In this case, it almost brings the flavor closer to hot chocolate, which is surprising! It's actually pretty good.
The pumpkin spice flavored, on the other hand, doesn't seem to do as well. Rather than working with the natural chocolate flavor of the cocoa, it seems to work against it, clashing with it.
I was kind of hoping for the "oh wow they mix so well!" experience that had with the hazelnut and maple pairing, but it doesn't seem to be there. Or at least not very much. I tend to think of maple and vanilla as being in the same flavor family, but I guess they're not close enough in this case. I tried out the thing of mixing the two when I had less than half in each cup, and while it's not bad, there are no distinct flavors coming out of it like it did with the maple and hazelnut. It's good, but it's just not special.
Overall I like the vanilla a little more than the hazelnut.