A First Taste: French Vanilla+Hazelnut Creme, Chocolate Toffee+Chocolate Cream

Ahhh, a first taste. First impressions, first thoughts and a undeniable desire to taste it again.

The Culprits

Hazelnut Creme Coffee by Melitta with International Delight French Vanilla Creamer (Liquid)
Chocolate Toffee Coffee by Seattle Best with International Delight Chocolate Cream Creamer (Liquid)

The Thoughts

Hmmm, nummy.

...that is, the Chocolate on Chocolate action was a wonderful accidental brew that had rich flavor and rolled around your tongue quite leisurely. It had the lovely not completely sweet flavor of chocolate, with a nice toffee flavored kick in the pants. Easy going down the throat and for me personally, the first time I've actually enjoyed the Chocolate Toffee flavored brew. other times the combinations were all wrong, but the jackpot was definately kicked this time.

The Hazelnut and French Vanilla dream was a lovely way to pry open tired eyes in the early afternoon. The caffiene kick is slow building and easy going, but still potent -- so don't drink too much or you'll be suffering from a headache like my dearest compatriot in coffee tasting. A very nice brew with International's french vanilla flavor and a definate one added to our list of 'must try again'.

Even Better Than the Real Thing, Baby

...well, not really. But that would be the question here, when comparing a flavored coffee versus a coffee flavored with a flavored creamer. (Wow, say that three times fast.) So, here's a First Look at our lofty opinion on the matter.

Contestants:

Don Francisco Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee
International Delight Cinnamon Hazelnut creamer (liquid)


Thoughts on the Coffee

Personally, this coffee, if prepared right, is divine. In fact, we'll have a lovely writeup on just how divine this brew is, because it's just that good. Such a lovely cinnamon flavor, with the nutty layer underneath, smooth and rich, hardly a single afterbite. This is "The Good Stuff". At least we think so >:] We're hard pressed to not drink this flavor all the time!

Thoughts on the Creamer

Full of cinnamon -- breathe in and you'll have that spring fresh feeling in your mouth. (Don't know if it does anything for the breath itself...) A worthy substitute when you just can't get the real thing...but unfortunately will take over the entire flavor of your coffee. And the hazelnuts just aren't kicking in flavor like the real thing. But if you're not sure about the coffee, this is a good tester.

Finishing the First look

Nothing beats the real thing, but the creamer isn't too far off base. We'll give it a B for taste and a B+ for effort.

More thoughts coming your way soon! With pictures even...

Entry 001: A Gentle Wake Me Up Brew

Coffee Flavor: Hazelnut creme
Coffee Brand: Melitta
Creamer Flavor: Chocolate Cream
Creamor Brand: International Delight
Liquid/Powder: Liquid

Methodology

We'll have more on the precise methods of our brewing, but for the moment, a brief description shall do. We ( that is my officemate and I) have a small four cup brewer made by Westblend. No fancy smancy brewing machines for us, (though the pod brewers look awfully cool...) so everything we do it completely repeatable with the simplest of equipment. Simple grocery store brand filters and a plastic soup spoon for measurements.

Of course, images of our instrumentation will follow shortly, as our mesurements are not in teaspoons, but rather "heaps" and "not so heaping". Hope you enjoy those "precise" measurements, but as office patrons, you should know that you tend to use what you have on hand, rather than the precise tools of the trade.

So, on with the method of preparation!

Today was a small batch, only a little over a single cup, so using slightly over two cups ( measured via the coffeepot itself) of water, plus 1.5 huge heapings in yea 'ol soup spoon of the grinds, spread evenly in the filter, we created a nice brew. The coffee color was rich dark brown but not black, so it wasn't overly strong. Overly strong coffee, Not Good. We are not sludge drinkers. :]

Creamer was added and it yielded a slightly bitter, yet nutty flavored brew. It was mild to the taste, but still a nice kick in the caffeine department. If you're looking for a pick me up that isn't a kick in the pants, this is a nice gentle wake me up brew.

Overall Thoughts

This was pretty mild and if you're looking for fairly sweet, you're not going to find it with this brew. But the taste was pretty good. Am not floored by International Delight's creamer so far, but then it could be that we just haven't placed it in the correct coffee yet. An addition of a packet of Splenda does add a nice sweet flavor to this cup, but will mask the nutty flavor of the coffee.

Coffee Guru Rating:

Giving this combo and blend a B-. It didn't kick and cause begging for more, but wasn't bad either.

Next Time: Cinnamon Hazelnut. Can you tell we like Hazelnut? You haven't lived until you've tried this one...

Healthy Benefits of a Morning Brew

According to this ARTICLE in the news today, coffee helps to prevent liver cancer! So coffeeholics, unite in celebration with yet another cup of java. :]

In other news, we'll be putting up a run of our brewing efforts and results shortly, so stay tuned!

The Beginning...

Of the end:P ~ Coffeeholics, unite!