Instant Pot Crio Bru is a deep, dark, healthy chocolate drink that you can drink multiple times a day and feel amazing. Making a habit of drinking chocolate each and every day is now very highly advised! This recipe is for the most basic version of Pressure Cooker Crio Bru and an essential for your kitchen.
For 10% off your Crio Bru order, use the code TIDBITSJUNE10%.
For those of you that like to sleep in, I’ve got a secret for you. Early, EARLY mornings are the best time of day.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the time of day full of funny kid comments, cuddles, laughing, etc., but do you even know what you’re sleeping through when you wait for the sun to come up?
Peace, total peace and quiet.
The home is quiet, the world is quiet, my phone is quiet.
It’s in those serene quiet moments, I can breathe freely. I can start a thought, and actually finish it.
It’s heaven, my secret piece of heaven, that I’ll sacrifice extra sleep for, any day.
You know what makes it even better? The smell of dark chocolate and a mug full of steaming hot Crio Bru.
Before we go any further, let me answer the question I suspect is on so many minds:
WHAT IS CRIO BRU?
Crio Bru is roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be brewed like coffee, but is absolutely nothing like coffee.
Crio Bru contains little to no caffeine so you will not experience jittery side effects and sleeplessness.
What it does contain is theobromine which works with your body to provide a gentle boost that won’t lead to a crash later in the day.
Crio Bru is also free of gluten, dairy, cholesterol, soy, sodium and sugar. On the Crio Bru website you can read about other benefits such as immune system support, weight loss, and much more!
But most importantly to me, Crio Bru is chocolate in its purest form and is absolutely delicious!
When I decided to take a course several years ago called Go Sugar Free, Crio Bru is what got me through. I drink it unsweetened with almond milk and my kids drink it with just a touch of maple syrup.
For years, I brewed it in a french press, which was kind of a pain and waiting fifteen minutes to drink it was torture.
On one of those quiet mornings, I got the idea to brew it in my pressure cooker, and you know what? I haven't touched my french press ever since.
I make a big batch, strain it, store it in glass jars in my fridge and my Crio Bru is now only two minutes away from being ready.
WHY YOU WILL LOVE, CHERISH, AND ADORE CRIO BRU IN THE INSTANT POT
- Dump everything in, push a button, and walk away. The Instant Pot's got your back.
- Even with using less Crio Bru grounds than recommended on the package, the depth of flavor and color is far richer than you can achieve from a french press.
- Did I mention it’s healthy? Yes, good for you dark chocolate in a warm, cozy, drinkable form.
WHAT DOES CRIO BRU TASTE LIKE?
If you take your first sip expecting cloyingly sweet hot chocolate you will be disappointed. This is not birthday cake people.
This is deep, dark, unsweetened chocolate in its most pure and natural form and it is bitter in the most heavenly way.
I appreciate that not everyone appreciates chocolate as dark as I do, which is why I enjoy mine simply with a splash of almond milk, and my kids (and everyone else I beg to try it) gets almond milk, a touch of cream (or a Frozen Whipped Cream Dollop) and maple syrup.
I’m not very familiar with the taste of coffee, but I imagine it is very similar in consistency and bitterness.
HOW TO MAKE CRIO BRU IN AN INSTANT POT
- Pour water, milk, and maple syrup (if using) into the pressure cooker pot
- Add Crio Bru grounds
- Whisk to combine
- Pressure cook 10 minutes (or 5 works if you’re in a hurry)
- Pour through a strainer to filter out the grounds
- Enjoy a cup and then pour the rest into mason jars
- Once cooled, top with a pourable lid and store it in the fridge to enjoy all week
SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR DETAILED COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
WHAT CRIO BRU FLAVOR SHOULD I BUY?
There are several varieties of Crio Bru, and I’ve tried them all. Here are my suggestions:
- If you’ve never tried Crio Bru before, go with a light roast flavor like Ghana or Ecuador. The Peppermint and Pumpkin Spice flavors are also a light roast, but I prefer to buy Ghana and then flavor it how I want to.
- If you like spicy, you must try out Maya. It’s not overly spicy, but it leaves a wonderful, gentle burn in the back of your throat.
- If you’re a coffee drinker and used to a deep, dark, bitter roasted flavor, my all time favorites are Ghana French Roast and their newest flavor Mocha.
MORE CRIO BRU PRODUCTS YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE
Criosa Chocolate Covered Cacao Beans are straight up the best chocolate treat I’ve ever had in my life. That is no exaggeration whatsoever. They are the only treat I’ve ever hidden from my family, and after you taste one, you will completely understand why. CA-RAY-Z good!
Criosa Dark Chocolate Cacao Chips are just slightly larger than mini chocolate chips and actually taste like real, pure chocolate (compared to other store-bought brands I know). I have never tried it, but on the package it gives directions for adding the chips to a cup of Crio Bru to make it sweeter and more creamy.
TIPS TO BREWING THE BEST CUP OF CRIO BRU
- Five to ten minutes results in great flavor, with ten being the darkest and most rich taste (my favorite)
- You have a choice of milk. I’ve used skim milk over a hundred times without any issues of curdling, but cows milk does tend to foam more than others. I like unsweetened vanilla almond milk or lite coconut milk (full fat coconut milk will harden once refrigerated).
- To sweeten it, I highly suggest real maple syrup. My second choice is agave or regular ol' white sugar. Honey tastes very strange, although I believe a very light honey would work fine.
- As you can imagine, drinking poorly filtered Crio Bru with leftover grounds in it is not pleasant. You will need a very fine mesh strainer.
BEST PLACE TO BUY CRIO BRU
I get asked this often, and hands down, ordering straight from the Crio Bru website is the best way to go. You'll find the most variety and best prices there compared to anywhere else online or in-store.
Bonus: After talking to you about Crio Bru for 5 years now, Crio Bru has decided to give me a discount code for TIDBITS readers! I may or may not have squealed and jumped up and down when I told my husband this exciting news!
I am so honored to give you the code TIDBITSJUNE10% so you can all get 10% off your order and drink Crio Bru every day of your life with me.
It will be the tie that binds us all together . . . virtually anyways. Well, that and Instant Pot-ing everything.
Be sure and subscribe to their newsletter as well. They come out with new, limited flavors of Crio Bru all the time and you better believe I order each and every one of them.
Now it’s your turn!
I’ve talked about Crio Bru countless times on the blog. If you’ve been around here long you know my love for it runs deep.
If you’ve tried it, can you let me know your thoughts in the comments? Love it, hate it, live for it, die for it . . . I want to know what you think!
I’ve been drinking a cup every morning for nearly ten years. TEN YEARS!!! I am so excited for you to experience it too!
And as for early mornings, well, if I haven’t convinced you of its glory, that’s just fine. MORE QUIET FOR ME!!!
Just don’t be mad when I send you a text at 4 a.m. and ignore your text during my 10 a.m nap time. #HOWISURVIVE
MORE WAYS TO BREW AND ENJOY CRIO BRU
- Instant Pot Golden Crio Bru (my personal favorite)
- Instant Pot Coconut Orange Crio Bru
- Instant Pot Strawberry Crio Bru (my daughter’s creation)
- Instant Pot Peppermint Crio Bru
- Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice
- Crio Bru Smoothie (loaded with protein and hidden veggies!)
- Chilled over ice – so refreshing!
TOOLS/INGREDIENTS USED TO MAKE INSTANT POT CRIO BRU
- Instant Pot
- Crio Bru – use the code TIDBITSJUNE10% for 10% off your order
- Fine Mesh Strainer
- Pourable Mason Jar Lids
- Real Maple Syrup (Amazon has a great price, especially with subscribe and save)
Instant Pot Basic Crio Bru Recipe
Instant Pot Crio Bru is a healthy, piping hot cup of chocolate heaven. So many possible flavor combos, but here's the basic recipe to start with.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30
- Yield: 8 cups 1x
- Category: Drinks
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ cup Crio Bru (any variety)
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (can substitute with any milk)
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- Add Crio Bru, water, milk, and maple syrup (if using) to the pressure cooker pot. Secure the lid and turn pressure release knob to a sealed position. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, use a natural release for 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure.
- Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour Crio Bru through the sieve to filter out the grounds. Be careful! The Crio Bru will be VERY hot.
- Serve immediately with a Frozen Whipped Cream Dollop or pour into 2 quart size Mason jars, top with a pourable lid, and store in the refrigerator.
- Enjoy cold or pour into a microwave safe mug and warm for 1-2 minutes.
Notes
- Cow's milk will foam more than almond and coconut milk. If using cow's milk, I suggest adding it after the Crio Bru has been cooked and strained.
- To sweeten, I suggest pure maple syurp. Agave and white sugar are good alternatives.
- For a less intense flavor, pressure cook for five minutes.
- Strain through a FINE MESH strainer to collect all of the grounds.
- Nutrition facts do not include maple syrup
Keywords: hot chocolate, crio bru, hot drink, coffee
Welcome! I’m Marci, wife to my motorcycle dream man and mother of 3. I have a passion for creating and cooking delicious masterpieces in my kitchen and am ecstatic to share my discoveries on TIDBITS! I like my food tasty, wholesome, memorable, and always, ALWAYS followed by dark, salty chocolate.
I tried the recipe (replacing the milk with water and halving it, since I don’t drink that much), and it’s fantastic! Cooking Crio Bru via the Instant Pot (or maybe just cooking it for this long) does seem to reduce some of the acidy/fruity flavors (or just adds more complex flavors to mask it). It definitely made a difference compared to my French press. Thanks so much for posting this!
After straining it and letting it cool a bit, I poured it into my French press to strain it better, and that worked really well.
Since I usually brew my Crio Bru twice (it’s less acidic the second time), I went ahead and put the beans back in the pot and tried brewing again with only 3 cups of water (it was 4 originally, since I halved the recipe), and the result wasn’t very good… too weak. I would definitely use less water the second time if I tried it again, but it may be that the beans aren’t good twice in the instant pot. 🙂
Thanks again for posting!
★★★★★
I’m so excited you tried this out! I haven’t used my french press in years after figuring this out. It really does taste better. That’s interesting about the second cook you did. I’ve never tried reusing them like that so that’s good to know!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I may soon. One quick question and a few comments.
Most of the Crio Bru flavors have tasted the same as the others for me. I was using a single-serving coffee maker, but it was so hard to clean (I don’t drink coffee, but maybe chocolate beans have more fat, which made it harder to clean than with coffee?), so I got a French press. But I noticed the “fruitiness” or “acidy” flavor seems to intensify with the French press, and I personally HATE fruity notes in my chocolate. I prefer the more espresso-like notes. Does using the Instant Pot increase that fruity/acidy flavor?
I’ve found I have to pour hot water in the french press and dump it out (not needing to wait the full press time) and THEN do the French press as instructed to get rid of the fruity/acidy notes. That feels like a waste. 🙂
For folks wondering how friends can make theirs without an Instant Pot, I originally used a tea tumbler with built-in strainer. You could probably use a loose tea strainer that you would put in a mug, too. You can also take two or three coffee filters and form your own little “tea bag” of Crio Bru… that worked okay, too. I seemed to get a lot of sediment through like that, but it was okay. You get a fine sediment through with the French Press, too, but not really any larger particles… the other methods will let some larger ones sift through.
For those wondering about just making it with cacao powder, I’ve done that and love it (don’t use too much, though… too much theobromine all at once can be bad), but I read a blog postulating that you’re getting more of the “bad” things that can get into chocolate, like heavy metals, if you eat it as opposed to brewing it, but I think that was based on what happens with tea, not any specific science with brewing chocolate.
Hope that helps, and if anyone knows how to reduce that fruit-forward acidy flavor, please let me know.
Thanks!
I’m glad the Instant Pot helped with the fruity/acid notes. I’ve also noticed that their different flavors actually taste different from the Instant Pot, whereas with my french press, they all tasted the same to me. Thanks for the note on cacao powder. I’ve never tried it but have always wondered.
Just wanted to let everyone know that you can buy cacao nibs, lightly roast them in the oven, and grind in a food processor or coffee mill.
MUCH cheaper then buying Crio Bru, and the same thing.
I also sometimes just add some organic cacao powder… makes for a slightly thicker, richer drink.
Betty, thank you! People have asked me this, I wasn’t quite sure how to recreate it. I’m going to try adding a scoop of cacao powder not too!
I make this often. I leave out the milk and sweetener so I can add whatever flavors I want when I drink it but love using the instant pot to brew it. If I want to splurge I add chai simple syrup and a little cream to the already brewed crio bru and it makes a delicious chocolate chai, if I’m looking for something a little healthier I just add a little almond milk. Sometimes I just add the chai spices right to the instant pot and brew them together. This recipe is so versatile. I never would have thought to brew it in the instant pot if I hadn’t come across this recipe.
Nola, I’m so glad you’ve discovered this method! It’s so much more flavorful than the french press, I can never go back. I’ve never heard of chai syrup, now I want to find some asap! Thanks for sharing your Crio Bru favorites, I love to play around with the flavors.
I brewed my first batch in my instant pot. It’s subtle chocolate but I can see how addictive it will be. When it sits, I noticed it looked like it separated a little but I wonder if that’s because of the almond milk. I may try it with just water and add milk or almond milk afterwards. Have you ever used more than a 1/2 cup?
Leanne, depending on the brand of almond milk you use, it can separate a lot. When I use homemade almond milk, the separation is very obvious. You can definitely add it to individual cups as you serve it though. Is the 1/2 cup your referring to about the maple syrup? I add 2 cups of milk to a full pot of Crio Bru plus a 1/2 cup maple syrup.
I am new to Crio Bru and I am loving it! I have a couple questions about your recipe though. Is it really just 1/2 a cup of grounds to 8 cups of liquid? I have to use 1/4 cup grounds to 2 cups liquid in the French press so I wanted to make sure. Also, if not using milk should I use 8 cups of water or stick with 6? Thanks so much!
Sarah, Yep, just 1/2 cup! It’s seriously so much better with the Instant Pot. I Love it! I’d do 8 cups water if you’re just wanting it dark like from a french press.
You made me a lover of crio bru! I’m a hot chocolate snob (I drink it like coffee) and I love that each person can sweeten it to their liking. My question is, any other ideas of how to “brew it” if a person doesn’t have an instant pot or French press? I purchased a whole bunch of flavors as Christmas gifts but then realized some of my recipients have neither. 😬
Ashley, Yay! I’m so glad you love it! As far as brewing it, the only ways I know of are the French Press, the pressure cooker, or a coffee maker. However, with the french press, all you’re doing is pouring hot water over it and letting it sit for 15 minutes, so I’m sure it could be done with a cup, boiling water, and a sieve. However, the flavor is definitely more intense from a pressure cooker and coffee maker than the french press. What a great gift! I’m planning on doing the same!
So, I tried this as my first attempt at making any Crio Bru product. And, honestly, if this is how it’s supposed to taste, I’m not sure why anyone wants to drink it. It is very bitter. But when I add the recommended milk and sweetener, I have no chocolate flavor left. Any recommendations?
Monique, oh the chocolate flavor should really hit you in the face! Did you make it in the Instant Pot?
Hmmm….I just made my first batch, too, and I’m a little underwhelmed. I don’t dislike it, but it’s so weak and watery tasting. I knew it wouldn’t be like hot chocolate, but I’m not sure this is what it’s supposed to taste like. I DID have a problem with my sealing ring, so I had to stop and restart the whole process. It smelled a little “burnt” at the end. I’ve got 4 bags of various flavors, so I’m not giving up! 🙂 But the chocolate flavor definitely did not “hit me in the face”! HAHAHA! 🙂
Kat, Keep giving it a chance. I know that sounds weird, but it’s one of those things that grows on you and will become a cherished warm moment of the day. Speaking from experience :). Did you do anything different from the directions?
I’ve been making crio bru for about a year. The flavor is stronger in the instant pot, but I did 1/2 cup to 5 cups water and then just added the milk, coconut milk, creamer or whatever you want to add to it after I had poured some in a mug. That way you can make it as flavorful as you would like it to be.
Julie, great idea!
Have you every tried this with cacao powder instead of crio bru? I get the organic, fair trade cacao powder from Costco in a big bag and it lasts a long time. I use it instead of regular baking cocoa. I’ve also found it in raw form in some stores. I think this is a good, and cheaper alternative to crio bru, except it is ground fine not like crio bru/coffee. Just curious for you thoughts. 🙂
Wendy
P.S. I have tried crio bru and didn’t like the whole French press thing.
★★★★★
Wendy, I’ve never tried it, but I am curious. I wonder if you’d even have to strain it . . . If you give it a try let me know. And I agree, I do no like French Presses!
Do you have to add milk or just it just make it creamier? New to the whole Crip brew scene 🙂
Lex, you can just use water if you’d like. The milk just makes it creamier and less bitter.
Do you know if the discount code is still live?
Thanks!
Jen, Yes, it should still be active!
Hmm. I’ve tried TIDBITS10 in chrome and safari with no luck =(
Jen, I sent them an email. I’m not sure why it won’t work. They were going to keep it active until spring. I’ll keep ya posted!
Okay, they got back to me already. She says it is still active. She says it is case sensitive so make sure you’re using TIDBITS10. And if that still doesn’t work, she said to email her at [email protected] after you place your order and she will apply the discount.
Sounds good. I couldn’t get it to work, but I placed the order and I sent an email to the company =) Thanks!