Crio Bru

Almost a sipdown! I really like the idea of these, still. Hot chocolate without the sweet, but it’s also not crazy bitter. A great winter drink!

Sipdown! Need to pick up some more of this stuff, I think. Not sure which flavour, exactly, but one of them. Mmmmmmmm.

Sample #3 from VariaTea! I think this may be less bitter than Cavalla – it tastes like liquefied dark chocolate chips. Maybe… 70%? With a bit of sweetener? Or perhaps semisweet (but less sweet than those, by far). Definitely creamy too. I should really do that side-by-side once I’ve had a mug of each… drinking them a couple days apart makes it pretty difficult to form any real conclusions.

Sipdown! 70/365

Getting behind on my sipdowns, because I’ve mostly been drinking Butiki (I’m halfway through? Maybe?) Anyways, I need to keep on track! So had this one the other night (ok, I just finished the majority of the cold cup now; the baby is wreaking havoc on tea drinking and life in general). Forgot it had cayenne, but it wasn’t as spicy as some of the other teas I’ve had lately, which was nice. Really quite an enjoyable cup, and I didn’t miss the sugar, which is somewhat surprising, since I’ve been craving sweets like mad for months now.

On another note, we started sleep training the baby tonight. Fingers crossed it works, because this perpetual exhaustion is not fun.

Another Crio Bru sample from VariaTea! Because I wanted to kind of see how a couple stacked up to one another… but I guess I should have paid more attention so I didn’t select the one with cayenne. Oops. Can’t really compare when there are additives in one and not the other. Anyhow, I like this one too. I can definitely taste the cayenne, but it’s just spicy enough to have a kick, but not to be annoying (I dislike when spice builds up in my mouth and I can’t keep drinking/eating something because of it). Again, creamy and rich chocolate flavour as well. I have no idea which of these two I like better (Cavalla or Maya) but I’d probably stick with unadultered, most likely, since I can always add a pinch of cayenne myself. Thanks so much VariaTea :)

Sipdown! 988. This is definitely somewhat bitter, though still tasty. Pretty sure I prefer the other (less-bitter) ones, though I really need to try the last one (two?) before being certain. Thanks again VariaTea!

Thank you VariaTea, for making a crappy day a bit better with your package of delicious teas and cacao :D

Brewed this one up first (I don’t know if I’ll bother with side-by-sides – it seems like effort and I don’t feel like putting much in right now), and am very pleased with the results. I used 1 tbsp for about 8 oz. of boiling water, and left it for…. a while. Not really sure how long. But the result is very rich, dark, creamy, and much like hot chocolate without the sugar. It’s a touch bitter, but less so than I would have expected. Overall, pretty tasty, and I’m excited to try the others.

This stuff is good – rich and creamy. However, when I steeped this I think I was in the mood for a sweet hot chocolate type treat and this is a bit more grown up and dark chocolate-esque.

Sipdown (118)!

Well, this is the last of the Crio Bru blends from VariaTEA. They were a little hit or miss for me, though as a whole I found them more enjoyable than Cacao from Herbal Infusions. Still not sure if there were any I’d purchase though.

This one wasn’t super exceptional to me; it came off as very bitter, and I definitely picked up on the cinnamon in it – I just don’t really care for cinnamon so that was a downside.

Less than impressed.

Sipdown (112)!

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample! I’ve been having these Crio Bru blends later at night to kind of wind down to and because they’re caffeine free but since I started the morning with a large brew of something caffeinated and another hot cup of mate I figured I needed something caffeine free to sort of juxtapose between the two.

This was really good; the chocolate taste was strong and very clear. I want to say it was a little less “thick” tasting and less creamy than some of the other blends – but not in a way that lessened the richness of it. It was just different and had a little bit of contrast. As for the “natural notes” present in this one – I absolutely did not get any blackberry (which seems very weird to have naturally occur in chocolate/cocoa) and I didn’t think too much about the green banana when I was having it but doing so now I can kinda see how what I was tasting could be compared to that flavour, it is a little bit of a stretch though.

Both Courtney and VariaTEA have written notes on this so far and have mentioned some bitterness; but contrary to their experience I did not find this to have any bitterness to it. I did, however, think there was a little bit of natural oilyness to it though, which I don’t think either of them brought up or experienced.

Decent overall; wouldn’t stock but would likely drink again.

Sipdown (128)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! So far, this is the Crio Bru blend I’ve enjoyed the most. To me, it came off a thicker and richer, and as for the “extra” flavour notes in this one (cherry, caramel, nuts) I feel like I at least picked up on a couple of them; primarily the caramel sweetness, but also a little bit of the nuttiness. No cherry though.

It’s kinda nice these Crio Bru blends aren’t all coming off as exactly the same, though.

Also, I just finished the first episode of Australian Big Brother, and I have to say that I’m a fan so far! It’s really weird watching a different format though – and I don’t mean that they’re playing in pairs. But, what’s weird for me is that they just handed someone the HOH title – there was no competition for it, and that totally messed with my mind.

And, the girl from last night (Tre’s date) – she’s here again. So, things going well I’d say.

Sipdown (127)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! I think, out of the three I’ve had so far, this is my least favourite Crio Bru blend thus far – it was chocolate-y but it was also quite bitter, and I was surprised when I looked it up here on Steepster because apparently it’s supposed be cinnamon/coconut and I definitely didn’t get either of those things.

So far Vega Real is my favourite, but I’ve got a few more to try so who knows, right?

Sipdown (136)!

Probably the Crio Bru blend I would have least likely picked out for myself, mostly because of the Cayanne in it. I am typically not a spice fan (I say as I sit at my laptop drinking Spiced Rum and Coke). But VariaTEA sent this one to me, and I’m grateful for the chance to try it despite my reservations.

I would describe the chocolate flavour in this one as “Semi-Rich”; it’s there, but a little more thin spread than I personally like my “hot chocolate” as well as compared to Vega Real (or at least my first cup of that one). Only somewhat surprisingly, there is some heat to this from the cayenne. Not enough to be uncomfortable, but it does sit at the back of your throat for quite sometime.

Overall I’d say this cup was average; really it’s the cayanne that really caused me to lose interest. I’m just not so big into spiced stuff (she says as she still drinks her spiced rum)…

Sipdown (135)!

See, one of the problems with my queue building up is that when I do a massive stream of posts like I’ve been doing today, sometimes I end up writing for the same tea twice like right now. And while I don’t care, I feel like sometimes that feels redundant to you all?

But anyway here’s what I wrote down for this last one:

- Weaker than the last cup
- Still tasty though
- No strawberry/citrus: just cocoa

It’s probably worth noting that this was weaker in flavour than the first cup but I didn’t change the amount of leaf, water or steep time I used. So I don’t know what that inconsistency is about…

Thank you VariaTEA for all the Crio Bru samples!

I’ve begun to dabble with them, and so far I think I definitely like them better than Cacao from Herbal Infusions. These seem to be a bit richer in flavour. But how much am I supposed to be using? I looked up what Crio Bru recommends on their site and it was something like 2 tbsp.!? That’s a lot. So I went with 1 tbsp. which still felt excessive to me, but I guess it yielded a nice cup.

It was chocolately, that’s for sure. This specific one (I just grabbed the first sample in VariaTEA’s package to try first) is supposed to have “Citrus and Strawberry” notes in it. Like, notes naturally found in the cacao. I didn’t get that – I just got a nice cup of hot chocolate type stuff, so I guess HI might have the upper hand in that department. I don’t know; we’ll see how I feel about the other blends I suppose.

Finished off the last of this as a candy cane eggnog and it tastes just like an After Eight. Yum!

This is much lighter and creamier in comparison to Coca River. It still tastes like dark chocolate but the bitterness is far less prominent. I don’t necessarily detect coconut like Courtney did but it is certainly enjoyable nonetheless.

So I decided to do a side-by-side taste test of of my Crio Bru’s to see if I actually detected a difference. To choose, I just blindly reached into the box and grabbed two and it turned out I grabbed Coca River and Cavalla. That means I am doing the same comparison as Courtney coincidentally and my findings are essentially the same. This one is definitely the more bitter of the two cups. Not overly bitter as in it’s not drinkable but bitter enough that I know I don’t want to restock when the sample is finished. Essentially this is like drinking melted bittersweet chocolate. Not horrible but not the best either.

Cavalla has become my comparison of choice for my Crio Brüs just because. The Vega is fairing better than Coco River in that there is no bitterness, but I don’t know that I’m getting any strawberry or citrus notes, it generally just feels a bit thinner than the Cavalla.

I still really enjoy this one.

What’s the difference between Cavalla and Cavalla French Roast? I don’t think I can discern any. They are both creamy, dark chocolate with subtle coconut hints.

I made this one for A and she had a couple sips then forgot about it. I finished it off when it was cold and it ended up being delicious.

In my comparison this evening with Coca River, I can get the coconut in this. It adds to the creaminess, and is ever so subtle, but it’s there.

I have come to the conclusion that I’m not huge on Coca River. My first steep last night had what I thought was a hint of bitterness that wasn’t in the other Crio Brüs. So this evening, I decided to do a comparison between Cavalla and Coca River and the bitterness is unmistakeable. Much easier to definitively notice it when comparing.

Maya reminds me of something I’ve had before, but I can’t put my finger on it. There is a spiciness to it, but more like Christmas cookie spice, not hot pepper spice. Christmas cookie spice dark chocolate in a mug.