Kind of tastes the way fresh cigarette smoke smells
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. It appears to contain husks.
General Thoughts:
My take above ("Kind of tastes the way fresh cigarette smoke smells") pretty much sums it up, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
As long as I drink it on its own or drink it first in a pairing, I can get some of the chocolate flavor from it, but as I work through the mug, that cigarette smoke flavor comes forward more and more. I don't hate it, but it's not one I'd like to have a big bag of, and if I ever got the 9-variety sampler again, I'm not sure if I would want to drink it. But I will say that I'm a little surprised at how well it faired in the side-by-sides, coming out as the winner or tied with a few, meaning that it wasn't at the bottom of the list.
It was hard to decide what to pair up with the Mocha Flavored roast. On on hand, it's a light roast, so it seems like it should be compared against another light roast. On the other hand, the "taste of coffee" makes me think it should be compared against a darker roast. I decided to go somewhat middle-of-the-road with the Nicaraguan Medium roast.
Smelling it while it's cooling, the Mocha seems to have a slightly smoky smell to it, but also a little sweet. The Nicaraguan compares with having the familiar dark chocolate smell leaning into the bitter side. When tasting, the flavors mostly mirror that. The flavor of the Mocha seems to come across as a cross between the Vanilla Light roast with a slight "cereal" quality to it, and it's paired with... well... a hint of cigarette smoke. But it's not bad! It's just where my brain goes with the flavor, looking for something familiar.
According to the Crio Bru website, the Mocha is "pure ground cacao with natural coffee flavor so you can enjoy the delicious taste of Mocha without any actual coffee or coffee ingredients." (emphasis mine) I'm not sure how that works. To me, kind of like my initial brush with the Vanilla Light roast where the flavor comes across as being artificial, but they say it's natural.
I think pairing it against the Nicaraguan roast for the first test was a good decision, but now I definitely need to try it against a darker and smokier roast like Volta Dark or Uber Dark. Overall, I think I do like the Mocha better than the Nicaraguan roast upon first drinking it, but over the next couple of hours, I found myself burping the Mocha flavor quite a bit. That could be a problem.
There's not a lot to say about these two that hasn't already been said. The mocha has a cigarette smoke flavor, and the cinnamon is neither the spicy variety nor the warm and cozy variety. The mocha, being what it is, does have some chocolate flavor that comes through, but in the cinnamon one, the cinnamon flavor pretty much eclipses it. I'm not a fan of either one, so I'm having a hard time picking which one I like best. Or dislike least. I prefer the cinnamon aroma over the mocha, but I prefer the mocha flavor over the cinnamon. I'm trying to think, "If I had to pick one of these to drink for an extended time, which one could I tolerate better?" I think they'd both make me give up drinking brewed cocoa if that were the case. This may truly be a tie even though the experiences are different.
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.
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.
I didn't have quite the full amount left for the mocha this morning, so I'm probably missing about 1 or 1.5 teaspoons of grounds. As a result, the cigarette smoke flavor is less pronounced today, but it also tastes a little weaker and thinner overall. I'm glad that this is the end of it.
Maya's nice spicy cinnamon flavor comes out quite a bit better than the mocha anyway. I am noticing, though, that there really isn't much chocolate flavor to the Maya because the cinnamon and cayenne overpower it.
The first few sips I took of the mocha, instead of being hit in the buds with the cigarette smoke flavor I've come to expect, it actually tasted somewhat chocolatey. As I got to the end of those sips, though, the smoky flavor started coming out more.
The peppermint is decent with a nice minty aroma. The peppermint flavor is obvious, but a little on the weak side, and there's a little bit of chocolate flavor. Overall it's okay, and I definitely like it more than the mocha, but it's still a little "meh".
(Given recent experiences with both of these, I'm kind of considering this one as a contest of the worst-of-the-worst. There are others have some questionable flavor that I'll run against both of these in the future, but I'm expecting both of these to fall to the bottom of list pretty quickly.)
Weirdly enough, the aroma of both of these is somewhat similar. I can tell them apart, but I think it has to do with the way the added flavors clash a bit with the chocolate.
In tasting them, the mocha has that slightly cigarette smoky flavor, and the chocolate does come out more. As far as taste goes, the Mocha really isn't that bad. I just know the last time I had it, I was burping up the flavor quite a bit and that's when the cigarette smokiness really starts showing up.
The pumpkin spice tastes almost sour next to the Mocha, with the spice flavor really conflicting with the chocolate. I don't have a general dislike of pumpkin spice flavored things, but I just really don't think it works here.
Drinking about half of the pumpkin spice and then switching back over to the mocha really accentuates the cigarette smoke aroma and flavor of the mocha, and as I reach the bottom half of the mocha cup, that just gets stronger. In spite of that, during the time that I'm actually drinking these two, I actually prefer the mocha over the pumpkin spice.
It's interesting to me how when I very first start drinking the mocha flavored one, I pick up on the chocolate quite a bit at first, but then as I get into it, it starts changing over to the cigarette smoke flavor. This is especially true if it's the first one I drink in a side-by-side. Once I taste the other flavor, whatever it is, and then come back to it, then it seems much stronger.
There's not much to say about the vanilla here. Every other comparison with it has said it all at this point, I think. I like it better than the mocha.