Can lean earthy or pungent depending on the comparison, but chocolatey and mild overall.
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 was one of my test bases for a while because it was so similar to both the Crio Bru Nicaraguan Medium roast and the Choffy Volta Medium roast. Once I got my brewing methods down, I found it can be a bit of a chameleon depending on what I compare it against. It is fairly chocolatey overall, but sometimes it's bitter, sometimes it has some of the pungency of Ecuador roasts, sometimes it's grainy or earthy like Ivory Coast or Ghana roasts, and sometimes it has a buttery flavor, especially if being compared against a very dark roast. (many light roasts seem to be demonstrating that quality, though.)
Taking in the aroma of both of these before trying them, I'm struck by how similar they are! Even in flavor they are very similar. The Ecuador has a tiny bit of extra punch to it in the form of the ever so slightly cinnamon flavor to it, whereas the Venezuela is just slightly milder and "flatter" and slightly more earthy. They're both decently chocolatey, and I like them both quite a bit. It's another one that is a super close call. Even though the Crio Bru Ecuador French roast tied with Venezuela, in this pairing part of me likes the Ecuador light roast just a tiny bit more... but I'm so unsure that I think I'm going to have to call it another tie.
These two side by side are really good together. The Crio Bru version of Ecuador French isn't as over-the-top roasty as the Choffy counterparts, so both the Venezuela and the Ecuador come across as fairly chocolatey. The Ecuador, not being so dark, the flavor that comes out as "pungent" in Choffy almost comes out as more sweet here. It's that flavor that I have described elsewhere as "sharp", but this lacks the edge that makes it sharp. It's not quite spicy, but... Oh, I figured out what it reminds me of! Cinnamon! Yup, that's it. It's has that flavor that comes across as sweet, and a little sharp or strong or spicy, but without the actual spice. In comparison, the Venezuela is "quieter". It doesn't have anything extra going on, and it's just, well, smooth and chocolatey and lightly bitter. Next to the Ecuador it's also a tiny bit earthy or grainy. It's really hard to pick a favorite between these two, which I'm a bit surprised about. I think I'm going to have to call this one a tie!
I blended the last quarter of each cup just because I'm curious how that will be. The Ecuador, for sure, gets completely lost. No roast, no pungency or "sweet cinnamon" flavor. It's all gone. Likewise, I'm not picking up the earthy flavor from the Venezuela. It's chocolatey, but that's about it. Like with the other blends I've done, it's good, but it just has nothing that stands out about it. But I could see that maybe that could be part of the appeal if you don't like any of the origins on their own.
First sipping the Ghana, it has a lightly chocolatey flavor, leaning towards grainy, and slightly buttery. The Venezuela is darker and more bitter, but still pretty chocolatey. When I go from the Venezuela to the Ghana, the grainy flavor really stands out very strongly, and it reminds me a lot of the Choffy's Ivory Coast Medium roast. These two are fairly different, yet I'm having a hard time picking a preference between them because they're both pretty good. I'm so close to calling it a tie, but I think I gravitate towards the Ghana just the tiniest bit more.
Wow, these two are really close. They're both pretty chocolatey and lightly bitter, and side-by-side like this, they both seem to have a little bit of a grainy or earthy quality to them, although the Ghana leans just a hair more grainy than earthy in flavor. In spite of the Ghana being a french roast and the Venezuela being a Medium roast, the roast levels feel about equal. I think there's just a tiny bit of an extra roasty aroma to the Ghana, but it doesn't seem to carry across to the flavor. Well, it might just a tiny bit, but not as much as you'd expect for the difference between a medium and french roast. I think if I were to pick either one for long term consumption, it would be the Ghana.
This was my first side-by-side comparison, and I was a bit dismayed to find that they still tasted so close that I couldn't tell them apart outside of the brewing method. But I did start getting an inkling that I preferred the french press method due to the lower sediment and grit in the cup.
Basically they just kind of taste like an unsweetened and mildly bitter dark chocolate, but it's somewhat thin.
Now that I have a better tea infuser and can brew more on par with the french press, I wanted to see if I can spot a difference between these two.
Taking an initial sniff of the dry grounds, the Venezuelan smelled slightly more like the Ecuador Light roast with that slightly pungent or sour smell, where the Nicaraguan just smelled more "plain" dark chocolate. Taking a sniff while they're cooling, the Nicaraguan still has that bitter dark chocolate smell, but the Venezuelan smells less dark but still a tiny bit of that pungent or sour smell.
As for taste, the Nicaraguan is slightly more bitter, and the Venezuelan is slightly less bitter and a little more mild, but the slight pungency to the scent doesn't seem to make it into the flavor. Or does it? Actually, it might a tiny bit, but I'm not sure that it's in a good way like the Ecuador roasts. It's really hard to tell.
These two are still really close, but they're not identical like I originally thought. I think I would have to go with the Nicaraguan over the Venezuelan for preference.
It's been a while since I've touched Venezuela, and at first sip, it does come across as quite chocolatey. When switching over to the Uber Dark, there's a flavor that comes up that's not quite sweet, and not quite spicy. I think it's what I described in one of the Volta comparisons as "sharp". It's not the strong roasty quality, but something under it that I'm picking up. Drinking the Venezuela first also seems to knock some of the edge of the roasty flavor off. Going back to the Venezuela after the Uber Dark, there's just a hint of that buttery flavor I've picked up on some of the lighter roasts, but it still remains decently chocolatey, if just a little bitter. Between the two, I like the Venezuela better.
Blending the two towards the end, it's kind of a "more of the same" scenario. There's a bit of a dark roasted aroma, but the flavor doesn't seem to carry that forward. Everything is stuck in the middle again, with no characteristics standing out over another. It's good, but it's just indistinguishable. Since this is my last Uber Dark comparison (except for Nicaragua, which I can't get a hold of yet) I think my next test will be to take two of the blends and compare them against each other to see what, if any, flavor differences there are.
Before taking a sip, the aroma of these two is surprisingly similar. They're not identical, but they're closer than Ocumare has been to anything else so far, I think.
I started with the Ocumare this time, and it's that familiar chocolatey, bitter, ultra-earthy flavor. The Venezuela is... again, surprisingly similar! It's not quite as bitter and earthy, but it lacks the sweetness that I've noticed in some of the others. Going back to the Ocumare, it's definitely more bitter, and the level of chocolate is about the same. The Venezuela has maybe a little tartness to it, too... or I may just be drinking them too closely together. Hmmm. The more I drink them, the more similar they seem to become. The Venezuela really is very close to the Ocumare, a lot more than I thought it would be. This is a really close call, and actually, I think it may be a tie.
The aromas of these are quite different. The Mexico definitely has the tartness in the aroma, but the Venezuela next to it is fairly earthy. Trying the Mexico first, it's the usual tartness with some bitterness and some chocolaty flavor. The Venezuela really is fairly earthy in comparison, but slightly in the grainy direction, and it almost has that "dusty" flavor that I get sometimes from the darker Ivory Coast roasts. But there's also a decent amount of dark chocolate there. The Mexico really is fairly tart next to it, but I prefer the Venezuela.
As a side note, I recently found out that Ocumare is a region of Venezuela, which I thought was interesting. So it surprises me that the Ocumare roast is so different from the Venezuela in most comparisons. Anyway...
Adding a splash of vanilla almond milk to the Mexico and giving it another go, the first sip has none of the tartness and the flavor is pure milk chocolate. The unaltered Venezuela next to it is still earthy and grainy, but also still decently chocolatey, but like I said, it's more of a dark chocolate flavor. Sometimes when I go back to the Mexico after sipping something else, the flavor gets more tart again, but that doesn't seem to be happening this time. It's just staying straight chocolatey. It's really good and easily the winner.
Giving the Venezuela a splash of almond milk, it's flavor and aroma are now more decidedly chocolaty, but there's still a hint of the dusty earthiness underneath it. Not much, but just enough that when thinking about it, I can pick it out. The Mexico is now starting to pick up just a tiny bit of the tartness again, but overall is still very chocolaty. These two are really close in terms of preference. I think the Venezuela is also coming across as just a hair sweeter than the tartness of the Mexico, and because of that, it eeks out a win.
The Ecuador doesn't really have any surprises going on at this point. It's the usual kind-of-dark and kind-of-pungent thing going on that's easier to drink than the french roast version. Next to the Venezuela it's pretty good. It's a little darker, as the name would imply, and a bit more bitter, especially in the lingering aftertaste, whereas the Venezuela is more chocolatey and has a little bit of a buttery or bready flavor to it that I've been noticing more and more. There's really not much to say except that I like the Venezuela more than the Ecuador.
The Ecuador french roast is quite roasty, pungent, and even a little sour, while the Venezuela is lighter, almost creamier, and has quite a bit more of a chocolatey flavor. Next to the Venezuela, the Ecuador has a fairly strong "coffee" quality to it. Between the two, I strongly prefer the Venezuela over the Ecuador.
Like I did with the Uber Dark comparisons, I decided to try blending the last quarter or so of each cup to see what happens. The aroma is strong with Ecuador. The flavor even has a good bit of the Ecuador pungency and roasty quality to it, but it's quite subdued compared to the aroma. It's lightly bitter because I think both roasts carry that quality, and it comes across slightly chocolatey, but it really mostly just comes across as a milder Ecuador. I think that's the first time a blend really tasted more like one over the other.
I didn't have enough of the Venezuelan or Nicaraguan Medium roasts on their own to make a single serving, so I combined them since they taste the same anyway. Also, this is my first case of writing the review while I'm actively drinking the cocoa.
Upon opening the bag of the Choffy Ivory Coast Medium, I took a little sniff and it didn't have any of the "this might be coffee" smell to it that everything else has. Even the other medium roasts (Volta, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan) had that smell a bit. This one smelled... I don't know. Cleaner? I almost want to say "like wheat", but I think my brain is being influenced by the description on the front of the bag, which says, "light chocolate flavor with subtle grainy notes (great for non-coffee drinkers)".
The Ivory Coast description is... quite on point! It's not bitter, or at least not as much as the Venezuelan/Nicaraguan, which still is only mildly bitter, but it is definitely a light chocolate flavor that tastes subtly like grain. Again, there are probably past descriptions I've seen of coffee or cocoa somewhere, but I'd almost describe it as even "slightly fruity", or maybe even woody, as if I can taste the tree it came from. I don't know. There's something else, too, but I can't quite pick it out. It's weird, but it's good.
I like it, and I like it better than either of the Crio Bru medium roasts. So far, if I were to pick a big bag to drink for a long haul, it may be this one.
Post test update: I've read on various websites that the cocoa grounds can be eaten and used in recipes, so every so often I'd take a taste of the grounds after brewing. Usually it's what I would expect: kind of burnt tasting chocolate. But in the case of the Ivory Coast Medium roast, they completely lacked that burnt flavor and I probably could have mixed them in with some cereal to eat, or even just eaten them straight from the french press with a spoon. They were kind of chocolatey and kind of nutty in flavor. Quite good, really!
I'm doing a rematch for two reasons. First, the initial comparison against Ivory Coast medium was done with a blend of Venezuela and Nicaragua roasts. Second, it was also done back when I was using my older tea infuser, which wasn't a fair match against a french press.
Taking in the aromas of each as they're cooling, the Venezuela is a little bitter smelling, with kind of a cross between earthy and pungent. The Ivory Coast, on the other hand, definitely smells more grainy, a little earthy, and a little sweeter.
In tasting, I don't know that I'd consider the Venezuela to be "rich" chocolate, but it's definitely chocolatey, with a little bit of the bitter, earthy, and pungent flavors I noted above. The Ivory Coast definitely has that grainy flavor, but the chocolate flavor really is very light. Also, in terms of flavor, I wouldn't say that it's sweeter than the Venezuela, but it lacks the little bit of bitter edge that the Venezuela has. If I were tasting the Ivory Coast not knowing what it was, I'm not sure that "chocolate" is what would come to mind. (Although, in a way, that's kind of true for a lot of the roasts. In my pre-"brewed cocoa" days, my chocolate palate was limited mostly to generic dark chocolate and milk chocolate, and brewed cocoa tastes very little like either one in most cases.)
I've been trying to place the earthy flavor in Ivory Coast because it has something that's slightly familiar in it, and it just hit me. It's almost like a hint of green beans. It doesn't taste like green beans per se, but they share a similar earthy note.
As far as picking a favorite between the two, it's hard. At one point I thought that the Ivory Coast medium was one of my absolute favorites over everything else and that Venezuela was one of my least favorites, but that's not the case anymore. They're both good, but for different reasons. I like the lightness of the Ivory Coast, but the dark chocolate bitterness of the Venezuela. I think that drinking them long term, I'd tend to go more with the Ivory Coast still, but it's not as clear cut as it once was.
Huh. I'm not sure if maybe I mixed up my roasts, but the flavors aren't quite what I expected. Oh! No, no I didn't. Ok, this is really interesting. I took a sip of the Ivory Coast first, and it had the familiar earthy flavor. But when I took a sip of the Venezuela, the aroma was a bit sour, and the flavor almost seemed more earthy at first. But when I switch and go back the other way, from Venezuela to Ivory Coast, it becomes very clear that the second one is Ivory Coast. Like with the french roast, it comes across as more grainy and slightly sweeter. The Venezuela, in comparison, really comes out mostly as bitter, with a bit of a stronger pungent flavor to it than I've been picking up recently. I hesitate to say that it tastes more chocolatey, though. The bitterness is surprisingly strong here. The Ivory Coast is the winner in this pairing by quite a bit, even though I wouldn't call it "typical" for a chocolate flavor.
I blended the last couple of sips of each one (less than a quarter of a mug total) and the aroma has both the bitter quality of the Venezuela and the earthy quality of the Ivory Coast to it, but the flavor turns into a fairly flat dark chocolate flavor.
My first reaction was "I'm not sure what it is about the Venezuela, it seems to be very close in flavor to a lot of different things!" But then I realized the last size-by-side I did with it was the Crio Bru Ghana roasts, so it kind of makes sense.
Taking the first sniff and swig of the Ivory Coast, I definitely pick up on the earthy flavor, but surprisingly less of the roasty flavor than I expected. Venezuela seems to be just a little bit more chocolatey in flavor comparatively, with a very light pungent note. It's funny, but when I immediately go back to the Ivory Coast, rather than earthy, the flavor becomes less earthy, more grainy and a tiny bit sweet. I feel like the Venezuela is what I'd consider to be a tiny bit more in the realm of "normal" for brewing cocoa. I have to be careful drinking them too close to one another, because they really do start to taste identical. This is another one where it's really hard to pick a favorite, but I think I like the grainy flavor of the Ivory Coast just the tiniest bit more than the full on chocolatey flavor of the Venezuela.
Starting with the Nigeria, it has the usual strong flavors of bitterness, burnt nut, and smoke with just the tiniest hint of chocolate in the aroma. The Venezuela has a slightly grainy flavor to it and is more chocolaty. The aroma matches, and the flavor is kind of light overall. It doesn't seem to affect flavors and aroma of the Nigeria when I go back to it. The Venezuela is the strong winner between the two.
Adding vanilla almond milk to the Nigeria only first, it's gets the usual stronger chocolate flavor, and the burnt and smoky qualities drop to the background, but they're still there. The Venezuela, in comparison, is a little strange. The flavor is a bit more bitter, and somehow it vaguely reminds me more of tea than brewing cocoa. Weird. I think the Nigeria actually wins this pairing.
Adding a splash of almond milk to the Venezuela, too, it takes on more of a chocolaty flavor, but that strange tea-like flavor and light bitterness is still there. The grainy flavor also seems to be making a come back, which is good. It's decent overall, and I think it wins out over the Nigeria because of the lingering burnt nut flavor still hanging out in the background of that one, but it's close.
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.
Full disclosure: I started this a little too close right after eating some breakfast, which I think caused the first part of the test to be weird.
Initially Volta dark just tasted a little generic with no standout aroma or flavor. The Venezuela had a slightly buttery flavor, but also leaned a little bit towards the pungent flavor of some of the Ecuador roasts. Going back and forth too quickly made them taste pretty much the same for a bit, but as I got down to about half a cup, the Volta took on a strong earthy flavor, and the Venezuela seemed almost slightly sour. I actually wasn't enjoying either one very much at this point. It's a close call, but I think I like the Venezuela just a little better.
Volta French is very roasty and a bit chocolatey, and next to it, Venezuela has that slightly buttery flavor. But when I go back to the Volta, it goes from being "roasty and chocolatey" to having a strong smoky flavor, almost going back to the ashy flavor I used to get when I felt like it was "drinking campfire ash". It still has more nuance to it than that, but it really went back in that direction. Overall I like the Venezuela more.
I decided to try blending the last little bit, and like just about every other time I've done it, the flavors flatten out. The aroma is a little bit of the butteriness of Venezuela, but it's gone in the flavor. There's a hint of the toasty flavor of the Volta, but mostly just chocolatey.
Taking a sip of the Venezuela first, it is chocolatey and a little bitter. Sipping the Anakin right after is very roasty and smoky, but it does have a tiny bit of chocolate flavor. When I went back to the Venezuela, I could pick out the buttery flavor I've noticed with comparing some of the very dark roasts to light(er) roasts. I prefer the Venezuela overall.
Adding vanilla almond milk the Anakin goes pretty much as expected, and it gets that toasty flavor. The Venezuela still has some of the buttery flavor, but it's not as strong as when comparing to Anakin "black". It also keeps a good amount of the chocolatey flavor to it, but comes across as more bitter for some reason. I really like the Anakin this way, and in spite of not having much of a chocolatey flavor here, I think it wins out.
I tried adding the almond milk to the Venezuela, but it really washed out the flavor. I tried to be careful to not overdo it, but I think that with it being lighter to begin with, it just didn't do it any favors. Anakin is definitely the winner here.
As for an overall win, I almost feel like I need to call this a tie since the Venezuela is better black, but the Anakin is better with the almond milk. But another part of me thinks Anakin should win because as far as comparing them each at their "best" state, Anakin with almond milk is better than Venezuela black. But yet another part of me thinks that I should compare them in their black state, in which case Venezuela would win. I think I'm going to give it to Anakin because that will be in line with most of the other Anakin winnings (with almond milk) but I think I'm going to have to come up with a way to track whether each side had almond milk and consider them to be separate comparisons.
Even though I just tested Shadow's Silhouette against Nicaragua Medium and all was fine, this time around it's starting off with a very strong tart quality. There's still chocolate in both the aroma and flavor, though. The Venezuela has a kind of an earthy aroma, but also sort of... rubbery? I know that's not the right word and sounds horrible, but it's the only one that's coming to mind. It's really not bad, though. The flavor is fairly earthy, but there's also a little bit of a sour note, but a decent amount of chocolate in it. It's not tart in the same way the Shadow's Silhouette is. Going back to the Shadow's Silhouette, though, it's even more tart after the Venezuela. Venezuela, while not a favorite, is the clear winner here.
With vanilla almond milk in them both, I can already smell the strong chocolate aroma coming off of both of them. Oh wow... both the Shadow's Silhouette and the Venezuela have pretty much gone super saiyan chocolate! There's a slightly different flavor between them, which I think has to do with the earthy flavor of the Venezuela, but they're both excellent. I think this is a tie!
This makes me want to compare Venezuela with the almond milk against some of the others were it lost previously. Depending on what I have left after some of the Chocolate Alchemy single origins and the Choffy Nigeria that I have on order, I may do that.