I spend a decent amount of time browsing Shoffee.com trying to decide what I’d like to review next.  With 200+ varieties to choose from it sometimes can be difficult to select only a few at a time.  Every now and again, however; something really grabs my attention.  I’ll read the description and get to thinking that whatever it is will most definitely be the best K-Cup I’ve ever tried.  More often not it’s some tasty sounding flavored offering from Gloria Jean’s.  And more often than not, when it comes time to compare taste to description, I end up being wildly disappointed (remember the Cappuccino Coffee debacle?).  Anyway, once again I read something that sounded good (Mudslide).  And once again my friends at Shoffee were kind enough to send a box my way.  And once again…well…read on…

The Description

The decadent taste of rich, creamy chocolate

Alternative Description

The mild taste of hot water with just a hint of artificial cocoa flavor.

The Aroma

I’d say it smells a bit like an acrid chocolate.  My wife says she thought it smelled more like vanilla.  The one description we could both agree on was “not good”.  When I’m really not feeling the aroma, sometimes I’ll wait for the k-cup itself to cool down and I’ll stick my nose right into the cup and take a big whiff of the grinds.  Doing it that way I actually get a decent sense of chocolate, but fresh out of the brewer there’s nothing in the aroma that makes me think “damn, I really want to drink that”.

Drinking it Black

Drinking Gloria Jean’s Mudslide black is pretty much a waste of time.  From a taste standpoint, I could just as easily be discussing what it’s like to drink water “black”.  There’s very little flavor.  Mostly what I experienced was the cocoa fumes masking a fairly benign weak cup of something a little bit like coffee.  I did sense a little bit of artificial nutty residue in the back of my throat.  So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.  Unfortunately, that’s all I got goin’ for me, which isn’t so nice.

With Cream and Sugar

Admittedly I like Gloria Jean’s Mudslide a bit more when cream and sugar are added, but that’s also a bit like saying I like having me teeth drilled a bit more when my dentist uses Novocain.  With cream and sugar added, Gloria Jean’s Mudslide reminds me a bit of drinking…wait for it…cream and sugar.

I’m thinking that if you took some of that old chocolate out of your pantry…you know, the stuff that’s been sitting around since Christmas, and has mostly turned white, and chewed it up really good, and then tossed a warm cup of cream and sugar in your mouth, you’d probably come close to replicating the taste of Gloria Jean’s Mudslide.  A second cup?  Anyone?

I don’t know…maybe it’s better with ice.  Maybe it’s better dumped down the sink.

Final Thoughts

I don’t like it.  How’s that?  Granted, I don’t hate it as much as Coffee People’s Chai Coffee, but I hate it as much as Gloria Jean’s Cappuccino, and that’s quite a feat.  While I wholeheartedly recommend you order K-Cups from Shoffee, I can’t in good faith recommend you add this particular variety to your order.

What I will say is that Gloria Jean’s Mudslide might be the most appropriately named of all of the K-Cups; as in Gloria Jean just dropped a steamy mudslide right in my mouth.  Too much?

Shameless Plug

Once again, this installment of the K-Cup Challenge is sponsored by our good friends over at the Web’s Favorite Coffee Shop, Shoffee, com.  Quite honestly I’m running out of things to say about Shofee.com.  We’ve been working together for over a year now, so I’ve pretty much covered it all.  I’ve told you a hundred times (maybe not quite a hundred) about Shoffee’s awesome selection and great prices.  I’ve told you about their K-Cup of the Week site.  I’ve told you about the Shoffee blog.  And most recently I’ve told you about Shoffee on Facebook (what, no Twitter guys?).    What I haven’t told you is that Shoffee Co-Founder, Joe Simonovich, is a huge Mets fan, but I respectfully ask that you don’t hold it against him.

While you’re here, check out all of the reviews in the K-Cup Challenge.