Crio Bru

My Crio Bru sampler pack arrived today with a free sample of their chocolate covered cocoa beans! Yum :)

This particular blend is like melted dark chocolate with a dash of cinnamon and just enough cayenne pepper so you feel the slight burn at the back of your throat. Very, very nice.

cold brewed this in water just to see how it fared…its interesting for sure. I prefer it hot brewed and then poured over ice but it was an interesting experiement lol. tastes like really rich chocolate icing.. or something lol

variaTEA thought she was being helpful when she made this listing but all that means is that now i HAVE to put it in my cupboard whereas before i could pretend that it wasn’t eta and so therefore didn’t need to be added lol. I had this one iced in omgsrsly style tonight when i got home after a very long day. Let me tell you, the only thing better was addeing a splash of criollo to this for a bit of sweetness and alcohol ha!

I tried making this one iced but messed up all the measurements so it turned into a watery mess. I would be sad about ruining the last of the sample Sil gave me (thank you!) if I didn’t have some of this on the way.

This is a big ole cup of nutty chocolate deliciousness. So good! And combined with coconut almond milk? Amazing! Thank you Sil for sharing! It didn’t take much to convince me to place an order with the company.

Made the last of this with coffee this morning, and it was SO GOOD.

So good, in fact, I’m making a flourless chocolate fudgey cake right now because mmm chocolate.

Mmm…

Oh man. I made up a huge mug of this with hot almond milk and a little sugar. It tastes amazing, and smells amazing, but I can’t drink it. :( I’m finding the only thing I can tolerate right now is my water and lime.

That really hurt to pour this down the drain.

I definitely recommend trying these cacao"teas" as lattes, or even steeping them in milk on the stove. So good.

(20 minute steep…)

Iced. With cream. Again.

I hung out with my mom this weekend, and it was awesome. I ate way too much good food (Gluten free crab eggs benedict! Triple Sec (hah! wrote “Triple Sex”) creme brulee!), went to the farmer’s market, bought cherries, visited a bunch of fruit and artisan stands, went shopping in Courtenay, convinced mom to buy a really nice shirt, bought more tea. :)

I also got loads of herbs and spices, and a gluten free lamb pie. Also gluten free pizza hand pies. Now I am home. And exhausted. And will probably be woken up in the morning by the sweet sound of jackhammers outside my bedroom window, as the back parking area is being repaved this week.

So. Yeah. How’re you doing? :)

VariaTEA, you are genius.

I was sad that it was too hot to enjoy this chocolatey goodness. So she suggested I ice it.

YES.

I added 2 tsp sugar, which was too much. 1 tsp next time. But otherwise:

4 tbsp Cavalla (I know)
10 oz water
1/4 cup or so cream
ice

Brew the Cavalla for 10 minutes, pour over cream and ice. Sip. Be blown away by the rich, bitter (sweet if you added sugar) chocolate goodness. It’s not chocolate milk, really, but it’s so so good. :)

HOLY MACKEREL.

This is CHOCOLAAAAATTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously in your FACE chocolate. Ahem.

It is ground cocoa beans, so I’d expect that. However, I hadn’t actually made this as recommended. 4 tbsp (yes, 1/4 CUP of the grounds) of this, 12 oz water. Steeped 12 minutes.

WOW.

Just. Wow.

I don’t think you NEED to do this to get the chocolate delicious flavours, but it certainly is fun. It’s super bitter because duh, it’s cocoa beans, so I added 1 tsp honey. It’s also a bit of an oil slick because duh, it’s cocoa beans with all the cocoa butter still inside, so I added some cream to make it luxe instead of icky.

Yes. Thank you. I will be making this with coffee in the morning.

Yeah, ok, this might be stretching it a bit with the whole “herbal tea” thing.

I found this in a local grocery store and could not resist. I bought some. Yes. And finally tonight I brewed some up. 2 tbsp this and 1 tbsp coffee (I KNOW! Coffee isn’t tea!) in a 10 oz mug for just over 3 mins. I added cream.

It’s actually REALLY good. Think 90% dark chocolate. Blended with coffee. This would be a great addition to some teas, although the website says this stuff brews best at 8-12 minutes. Maybe treat it like a chai and cook it on the stovetop, adding tea for the last few minutes? Any tea you want to taste intensely dark chocolatey and have that rich delicious mouthfeel of chocolate (that might be partially the cream talking!). That’s what you’d brew it with. I’m thinking a couple puerh teas I have might be really nice with it. Hazelnut teas. Yes. It is time to experiment.

This one says it has notes of coconut and cinnamon. I definitely taste the cinnamon notes. So delicious. I think I’ll brew up some more without the caffeine, maybe in almond milk, for a before bed treat!