Review: Curl up with your favorite book and Crio Bru brewed cocoa

*Disclosure: I am a participating Influencer at The Entertainment New Media Network. I have received free product for review to facilitate this post. I was not compensated for this review and all expressed opinions are strictly my own.


This post was originally going to go on my film blog, and I was going to say how it would be great to watch a movie and drink some Crio Brü cocoa. But then I realized that drinking hot chocolate (or eating cookies, in this case) would be a great activity to do while reading, as well.

To make Crio Brü, you need a coffeemaker or a French press, neither of which I have, since I dislike coffee. So I headed over to fellow ENMN blogger Justynn's house to make the cocoa, since we each received a package with two varieties: Cavalla and Maya.

Well ... you know what they say about the best laid plans. We tried a few times to make the hot chocolate, but I have a feeling we were not following the instructions 100% - the batch that we ended up trying was very bitter and hopefully not what the hot chocolate normally tastes like.

However, I was in luck, because Justynn had recently made these, using the Maya hot chocolate powder:

Yes, those are COOKIES, and they were delicious. She made them using the recipe on her blog, which you can find here; the substitution she made was to use 1/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/3 cup of the Maya hot chocolate powder, rather than 2/3 cup cocoa powder.

Some things you should know about Crio Brü:

• It's made from 100% roasted cocoa beans - that means no sugar, chemicals, gluten, or dairy. The product contains many antioxidants, abundant minerals, and "healthy energy."
• Raw cocoa beans have more antioxidants than almost any food in the world. 
• Cocoa is an appetite suppressant (really?! who knew!), and for a 6 oz. cup of Crio Brü, it's only 10 calories (as well as 0g of fat, 0g of sugar, 0mg of sodium, and 1.5g of carbohydrates)
• Crio Brü carries seven varieties, including the two we received to try: the Cavalla (with notes of coconut and cinnamon) and the Maya (notes of cinnamon, ground vanilla, and cayenne - but the cookies didn't taste that spicy).

Cocoa powder varieties we received to try

I'd like to try brewing the Cavalla variety again sometime, or maybe including it in a smoothie or another baked good. According to Crio Brü, you can actually reuse the grounds too with less water or by adding 50% new grounds ... and you can even use the Crio Brü powder to exfoliate and moisturize your hands!

(I'm pretty sure smelling like chocolate all day would not be a good thing, at least for me ... I'd be craving chocolate! But it would definitely be interesting to see if my hands became softer/more moisturized)

What's your favorite winter treat or hot drink? Any hot chocolate fans here?