Crio Bru Brewed Cacao Ghana French Roast 1.5lb (24oz) Bag - Coffee Alternative Natural Healthy Drink | 100% Pure Ground Cacao Beans | 99.99% Caffeine Free, Keto, Low Carb, Paleo, Brew And Enjoy Hot or Iced

Tastes great! Love that it's chocolate, and smells so good! Prepare it just like regular coffee and enjoy!

If you are looking for a coffee substitute, buy this. If you are looking for a hot chocolate drink, look elsewhere. From my understanding, this is made with the shells or outer part of the cocoa bean. They are roasted and then you brew it like coffee. Like coffee, it is bitter, not sweet, and will have the same viscosity of coffee, not cocoa. You will notice a very small about of fat in the brewed drink, my guess is from residual cocoa butter--we are talking trace amount. I blended mine in a coffee grinder, brewed in a french press, mixed after it steeped for 6-8 minutes with a frother, strained at 10 minutes, and then added my creamer and sweetener. To me, it tasted much like coffee with a hint/aftertaste of chocolate. Also, smells really good when it is steeping.

I gave it five stars but this is not for everyone. It's not thick and sweet. It's more like a watered down cocoa, but it's a great base and if you brew it for long enough it gets pretty sweet. This is a "no additives" option and worth a try. It gets better if you have a coffee mug heating pad (cat version is excellent, item B0DF75YBY6) and let it sit for awhile.

I don't like coffee and I don't like sweet drinks. Luckily this tastes nothing like coffee. It just makes an awfully nice morning beverage, gives you a little boost, and when you put a little stevia and whole milk in it, it is just divine. Makes a nice change from my usual green tea in the a.m. Only reason for four stars is it is quite expensive per cup, so won't be able to enjoy this every day. While the chocolate taste is quite different from, say, Hershey's dark cocoa, adding a little sweetener really brings out the flavor. It's different, but delightfully so.I percolate it in my electric percolator instead of a french press where it has to sit for so long, (according to the instructions), it's barely lukewarm when ready to serve. Percolator uses less product and it's piping hot when ready, and keeps it hot for a second cup!

Its a lot of work to make. You have to put it in the french press for a while and you're supposed to stir it partway through. I thought when I bought it the price was ok, a lot more than my go to coffee, but not abnormally more than 10 oz bags. However, the weight for volume of this is a lot more than coffee, so when it suggests putting half a cup into the full french press a significant portion of the bag is being used up. This was not the robust/strong amount. That was a cup, so if you choose to do that you might get three presses from a bag by my estimation. At the half cup, you'll get about 6. So as a treat, this ok, but it's not a daily drinker at this price. Now the taste: it's ok. It's not bad, it's pleasant. It's like very watery, not sweet hot chocolate tea. With cream, it was fine, but it's nothing to really get excited about. Maybe the double strength would be more exotic, but then we ask if a pot of french press is worth the effort and five bucks of mix. If I want hot chocolate I can make it with cocoa powder. It did seem to give a morning lift. I didn't miss my standard two shots.

I saw this advertised on Redit and being that I like hot chocolate, thought I'd try it. Brewed using a french press, per the directions on the package. It was weak and slightly bitter. Reminded me of really weak coffee. I tried it again, twice. The first time I used the recommended Bold concentration. Then, I doubled the concentration. Each time I ended up with a bitter unsatisfying drink, even when I added milk. My sense is that something is missing. I threw the rest of the bag in the trash. I'll not be buying this again.

First off, this stuff smells amazing. It is cacao, after all. So, as soon as you open the bag, boom! Chocolate scent in your face!It is more work to brew, than coffee. For my coffee, I just put it and the water in my french press, then stick it in the fridge to cold brew, overnight. From what I have read, some people have cold brewed the cacao, but they had to use more of it. Considering how crazy expensive it already is, I'm not trying to do that. So, I hot brew the cacao, then make a mixture of approximately 40% coffee and 60% cacao. This gives the best of both worlds (coffee and chocolate). You get your caffeine boost (but a lower amount) from the coffee, and the delicious flavor and aroma from the cacao. Plus, doing this stretches my cacao further, effectively making it cost less per cup, while still being amazing.

My husband and I absolutely love Crio Bru! We are not coffee drinkers and were looking for an alternative to sugar-filled hot chocolate. We are not so much fans of drinking it just straight brewed. We add a little stevia, some cream, half and half, or flavored non-dairy creamer, a little dash of salt and occasionally some MCT oil. There are many health benefits to drinking brewed cacao (read the product info) and if you do drink it straight, or with very little half and half or sugar free sweetener/creamer it does not affect your fast if you are doing intermittently fasting. Very low calories and carbs so it is keto-friendly as well.There are several roasts of Crio Bru and we like this one a lot. We have tried many and this is one of our favorites. It is not as bitter as some of the other roasts such as the Nicaragua med roast. That one has a very bitter, rooted flavor and smell to it. We prefer this one, along with a few others. When it is being brewed it files the room with a nice chocolaty smell. We use a coffee press to brew it, but just recently started to try putting the grounds in tea bags for less mess. (my husband drives truck and he didn't want the mess of the wet grounds to have to clean up in the truck)I highly recommend this product. We had no problems with shipping or the seller.