A few weeks ago I wrote about how I want to pay better attention to how coffee impacts me (I typically drink 1 small cup each day). As an experiment, I bought a bag of Crio Bru, a cacao-based alternative to coffee that brews in a French press exactly like coffee, and today I’ll share my thoughts so far.
My first impression was that it really does brew exactly like coffee–I just put a few scoops in our French press, pour in some hot water, and wait a bit for the magic to happen. The only difference is that Crio Bru makes fewer drinkable cups than coffee, so you’re likely to go through a bag much faster than coffee grounds.
Next is the smell. Crio Bru smells amazing. It smells like the molten chocolate river in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. I really like the smell of coffee, but cacao’s odor is even better to me.
Then comes the taste. I drank it black (no sugar or cream). Crio Bru definitely tastes different than coffee, a little more bitter (despite being less acidic). I was actually prepared for it to not taste good, like a 100% dark chocolate bar, but it was fine. It scratches the itch of a warm, comforting liquid in the morning.
Last are the physical/mental effects. I don’t have reason to believe that I have any coffee/caffeine withdrawal effects in general, but I was curious to see if dropping to the lower caffeine in Crio Bru would give me headaches. The answer: I’m pretty sure it’s fine. I’ve had it on 4 different days (drinking coffee on the other days as normal), and while I did get a headache on one of those days, I’m pretty sure it was unrelated.
Overall, my plan is to add Crio Bru to my normal morning routine every couple of days, alternating between it and coffee.
Have you ever experimented with an alternative to a drink you enjoy on a regular basis?
I’d say that, if you get headaches from caffeine withdrawal, you are drinking too much coffee.
I drink half a cup of coffee a day at most–I don’t get coffee withdrawal. I do, however, have several migraine triggers for things I consume (not things I don’t consume): If I accidentally eat something with sucralose or mint, for example, it will trigger a headache. So for my specific medical composition, it is far more likely that something about Crio Bru triggers migraines for me (not the absence of something else).
Mr. Stegmaier, I have followed you for some time at Stonemaier Games but ran across this post. I was doing Crio Bri for a few months then one day just got tired of it. For hypertension I have switched from regular coffee to decaf and plan on getting the crio bru back in the rotation for its additional cardiovascular benefits. Just curious if you have compared decaf coffee to crio bru?
Thanks for sharing your experience! I haven’t tried decaf coffee.