I can't quite describe it but "Black IPAs" have been around for a while and all the ones I've ever had were very light on hops and basically just a watered down stout essentially. They just had nothing to them. The CDAs I had (by the way Cascadian is what I called them after I looked them up too, I think I even posted in this thread calling them that originally, but my friend in Portland told me that wasn't the name when I linked it to him and asked if that was what we had been drinking when I was visiting) actually had flavor and body. Of course that could just be because those were good and the others were bad even though they were the same style, but the hipsters in Portland definitely made it a point to say "NO" when I asked if it was a Black IPA.
tl;dr I defer to you guys on the true name/style of the beer, my friend was probably just wrong and I couldn't read at the bars we went to. All I know is they were delicious, I've never heard of or seen a CDA anywhere else, and I wish I could get my hands on them here on the East Coast.
