You may want to stick with pumpkin spice lattes.
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:
The pumpkin spice flavor really clashes with the flavor of the chocolate rather than working with it. I'm not adverse to pumpkin spice flavor generally, but I don't think it works in this context.
This was the last pumpkin spice side-by-side I did just to use up the last serving. I already knew what the outcome would be, and there were no new discoveries that came out of this. Caramel wins. Fatality!
While the cinnamon one still isn't one that I'd ever want to have a big bag of, it's still much better than the pumpkin spice. Side by side, the cinnamon almost has a slightly sweeter taste to it. And I don't dislike it as much as I previously thought. Going with my very first impression of it, it's "decent". The pumpkin spice, on the other hand, comes across... I don't know. I kind of want to say "bitter", but that's not it. Sour? It's like the smell is slightly sour, but the taste isn't.
There's not much to say on the pumpkin spice side that hasn't already been said in other side-by-sides. The I strongly prefer the double chocolate to it.
As far as the double chocolate, this is the first time in a very long time that I've had it. In terms of side-by-sides, I've only ever compared it to the Nicaraguan Medium roast, and that was back before I had my brewing methods really dialed in to at least make things even. That being said, it really is very chocolatey. I'm not sure how they add more natural chocolate flavor to something that's already comprised 100% of chocolate, but they did it. It really does remind me of an unsweetened hot cocoa. The chocolate flavor and aroma are both pretty strong. It's good, and I can see why it's popular, but in a way I kind of feel like it's cheating to get there. But that being said, I'd have no problems drinking it if I had a big bag of it.
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 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.
I think at this point I'm just trying to use up the rest of the Pumpkin Spice so I don't just have to throw it away. The spicier and sweeter Maya is much better than the pumpkin spice, and I don't expect any future side-by-sides with pumpkin spice to do any better.
(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.
Pretty much as expected, the peppermint works with the chocolate, whereas the pumpkin spice works against it and tastes a little funky. I strongly prefer the peppermint, and there's not much else to say!
There's really not much to say here. Vanilla is better than pumpkin spice, and nothing new was discovered.