The maple flavor and aroma, but without the sweetness
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:
For the most part, I felt like the side-by-sides revealed that the maple flavor clashed a little with the chocolate. But I got a nice surprise in the last comparison (against hazelnut) where something about the combination really clicked, and I think that maple and hazelnut brewed together would be a flavor combination worthy of competing with the caramel flavored variety.
Taking a sniff while they're cooling, I am getting the impression that the caramel will work well with the chocolate. In fact it smells a lot like I really good hot chocolate. The maple, on the other hand, smells like it may be working against the chocolate flavor a little like the pumpkin spice did. I hope I'm wrong, because I absolutely love maple flavored stuff.
The maple is actually pretty good! It's a little strange to taste the maple without the added extra sweetness, but the maple flavor stands out and actually doesn't feel like it's clashing with the chocolate of the cocoa very much.
The caramel is excellent. It's lightly sweet, and the caramel flavor works so well with the chocolate flavor of the cocoa. It is the closest thing I've tasted to a good cup of regular hot chocolate. Adding some sweetener and some creamer to it I think would make for an amazing hot chocolate replacement. In fact, it's made me realize regular hot chocolate needs caramel in it more often. Yum. It's definitely the winner between the two.
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!
The aroma coming off of the maple is very sweet compared to the cinnamon. The actual flavor of either is not sweet, but the maple kind of tricks my brain into thinking it is, and I do prefer the maple over the cinnamon. The maple tastes a little less "clashy" than the cinnamon. As I get to the bottom half of the cup, I can taste a tiny bit of the bitterness of the chocolate in the maple that I used to pick up more when I first started this whole journey, but the cinnamon lacks that.
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!
I'm not sure why I thought these two would at least smell very similar, but they really don't. The Maple has a sweeter aroma, whereas the Highlander Grogg has almost a more bitter aroma. Anyway, getting to the flavors, the Maple has, well, a maple flavor that even after all this time, on its own, I still think clashes just a little bit with the chocolate. It's good, but on its own, it's just not my favorite. The Highlander Grogg definitely as a little bit of extra bitterness to it, and next to the Maple, there's not much of a butterscotch flavor here. There's a little tartness to it, but it's mostly the Irish cream flavor that stands out. with maybe a bit of the hazelnut. I'm not sure which I'd say is more chocolaty, as neither one really comes across as chocolaty. As I continue to drink them side by side, the tartness in the Highlander Grogg seems to be getting a little stronger. Even though I really like the Highlander Grogg on its own, and in spite of the maple flavor being a little clashy with the chocolate, I think in this comparison, the Maple actually wins out.
Also, fun fact: When I made the first batch to compare, I wound up accidentally pouring them into the same mug! The combined flavor was good, but not as "wow" as the hazelnut and maple combo.
I think I've said before that I think the Maya is something that I have to be in the mood for, and I have a feeling that's going to be coloring a number of my comparisons with it. At the same time, if I have to be in the mood for it, it means that I don't necessarily love it, and therefore it should wind up farther down the list.
I think this is one of those instances. I'm just not feeling the spicy cinnamon flavor today, and by comparison, I'm liking the maple way more because it's fitting in much better with my mood. I'm just glad that the Maya is better than the regular cinnamon flavored roast.
As I've said elsewhere, the maple flavor is a little clashy with the chocolate. The smell of these two were a lot closer than I thought they'd be, but the maple flavor comes out stronger. It's ok, and I like it better than the mocha.
This one is a little closer than the peppermint vs vanilla was. The peppermint has just a little bit of chocolate flavor to it, while the maple seems to be mostly maple. The peppermint also gives off just a tiny bit of that "smells like chemicals where I got my hair cut as a kid" vibe still, but not as strongly as it did when comparing against the vanilla. Even with the maple being less chocolatey, I like it a little more than the peppermint.
I had expected these two to be a lot closer in how the flavors clash a bit with the chocolate, but it turns out that pairing it with the pumpkin spice, the maple comes out tasting really good! There isn't much chocolate flavor to it, but the maple comes out nicely. As I go "up" in my list of my perceived preferred flavors, the pumpkin spice just tastes worse each time.
Both of these are really good, and they're kind of flavor-adjacent. I know maple and vanilla aren't at all related, but for some reason they always seem to be in the same flavor family to me. I know that I've said before that the maple flavor clashes with the chocolate flavor a little bit, and while it's not a strong clash, it's there. I think that drinking the maple next to the vanilla kind of highlights it a little, as the vanilla seems to work more in tune with the chocolate. But then again, now that I'm really paying attention to it, neither one seems to have much chocolate flavor, with the added flavor masking the flavor of the chocolate quite a bit. So while I'm not getting a direct chocolate flavor out of either one, I still think that the tiny bit that interacts with the added flavor does so differently with each one. The vanilla is cohesive, but the maple is a little clashy.
As far as preference, this one is actually amazingly close. I'm trying to think which one I'd prefer to drink long-term, and I think the vanilla is winning out by just the narrowest of margins. I do really like the maple, especially in this pairing, but I think the tiny bit of flavor clash would make it less enjoyable for me in the long run.