Back in February, our manager won a raffle prize during the Valentine's Event at Cortez Coffee. The generous gift basket that he won was sponsored by Brazen Chocolate, a local company in Scottsdale specializing in craft chocolate. As if that wasn't enough, they also gave him a bag of their cacao nibs. We've been experimenting with these fine nibs, and here are some of the results:
Coffee infused with Cacao Nibs
Straight out of the bag, the nibs have a strong acidic flavor. When brewing, the acidity transfers directly to the coffee while adding a gentle chocolate aroma. We mixed ground coffee and nibs together for a pour-over brew. It was tricky to control the grind of the nibs because they had a lot of colloidal solids that clogged up the filter.
We took the nibs and roasted them in order to tone down the acidity and bring out more flavor. The roasting aroma was intensely chocolatey, like the concentrated smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, and this intensity was transferred into the cup producing great flavor. The color was a beautiful milk chocolate brown.
There was a layer of natural oil from the nibs that gave the cup a buttery finish. The brew had great body and was not gritty at all. Overall, this was very rich and delicious.
Cold Brew of Roasted Cacao Nibs and Peruvian Coffee
We had some Peruvian beans that had a very neutral flavor. We thought this would be a good choice to blend with the roasted cacao nibs so that the chocolate flavor wouldn't be overpowered.
The result was excellent. The final color was an enticingly deep caramel, while the flavor was very clean and refreshing, with the chocolate rounding out the mild flavor of the beans. This cold-brew was very easy to drink and pairs perfectly with sweets.
We love working with awesome ingredients, and these nibs are definitely awesome. Experimenting with them was really fun, and we are really excited to bring some our results onto our menu.
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