08.24.08

Taste Nirvana Mocha

Posted in 3.5 Wasabi Pea Rating, Beverage, Coffee at 12:17 am by Boo

Usually I have My Favorite Guinea Pig review the coffee ‘snacks’ but I’m still suffering from post-datery syndrome and I’m on a roll with the writing. Strike while the iron’s hot I say. Except not with this bottled coffee because they would rather you enjoyed their beverage chilled. Which I am.

I think anyone who’s enjoyed coffee has probably started with appreciating the aroma first. To me, pretty much all coffee has a tantalizing whiff of deliciousness even if the flavor doesn’t back it up. I don’t know why, but I find quite a lot of coffee out there smells a bazillionty times better than it tastes. Then again, I’m fairly new to the coffee thing so maybe there’s a learning curve.

As far as the smell of this coffee…it’s…pretty mild actually. There’s the standard sharp, dark, beaniness of coffee but also a very strong chocolate and a nicely mellow milky. All three smells seem to have equal footing which seems odd. I’m used to COFFEE (andsomeotherscentstoo).

The taste is just as divided among the three major players. There’s the astringent coffee flavor, a semisweet chocolate flavor and a creamy milk flavor. Actually, the milk and chocolate kinda team up to make a rather Nestlé’s Quickesque flavor. I hadn’t thought to make mocha from Quick and coffee but I don’t see why you couldn’t. I’ll have to try that someday.

I’d say that Taste Nirvana is almost as good as the JSFR standard coffee drink Hello Boss Coffee (which we have been known to buy as a grocery staple) save for a lingering…something. I can’t quite put my finger on it (or my tongue I guess would be a more appropriate expression) but there’s a hint of a flavor that’s just a little bit off. Maybe the beans are a bit to harsh, or a preservative is just a wee bit stronger than it should be but along with the mocha deliciousness I’m tasting a not-coffee derived bitterness. It’s certainly not a deal breaker but I think it’s enough to keep Taste Nirvana from supplanting Hello Boss as the JSFR coffee drink of choice.

Even the amusing cap message won’t help, but it will make me smile.

Taste Nirvana Mocha is a delicious mocha with an odd undercurrent of bitterness that I don’t think is coffee related. It’s better than a lot of the canned coffees we’ve reviewed so I believe I’ll go with a

Rating of 3.5 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.

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