I've been talking with a friend who runs a coffee beans (and a lot more) website, and she's expressed an interest in finding someone who could advise her on pairing coffees with chocolates to come up with suitable, complimentary matchups.

So I thought I'd fling the query out here, since I know there's some talented, knowledgable people in our community! If you feel you have good advice to offer on this topic, email me at lori (at) cocoajava (dot) com, and I'll see if I can get the two of you hooked up together.

Thanks!

So, my esteemed husband-unit, the lovely and talented caribouken went grocery shopping this afternoon. And he came home with a surprise!!!!!

Caribou Coffee Snack Bars are now available in TWO NEW FLAVORS!!!!

He brought home a box each of "Caramel High Rise" and "Mint Condition".

My glee is uncontainable!!!!

(He found these at Meijer's in Michigan - you'll have to poke around your locale to see if they are being carried near you!!)

I was @ Walgreens today and browsed the Valentines Day candy and found a new version of Hershey Kisses - Dark Chocolate with Espresso!!! How awesome is that?!?! I also saw that there was a place where they apparently had another special edition kisses candy - Cherry Cordial Kisses. I would have bought a bag of those if they had any.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but Hershey's now has Coffee flavored Special Dark Kisses. I picked some up the other day and they're not half bad. Granted, but coffee flavor is just that, flavor. It's kind of obvious to me, a hard-core coffee addict, that it's not natural, but they're still pretty good. Only a mild aftertaste.

My esteemed spousal unit, caribouken did the grocery shopping yesterday, and gave in to a rather nifty new product. Which, given his nickname, of course he couldn't resist.

General Mills apparently has teamed up with Caribou Coffee - and now there's Caribou Coffee Chocolate Mocha Chewy Granola Bars. And also, Vanilla Latte! Ken got a box of each.

They're pretty good. They aren't hard and crunchy. They're very chewy, with a nice frosting-layer of either the mocha or the vanilla flavor, and a drizzle of complimentary frosting. The coffee flavors come through quite well!

Anyone else try them yet? What's your opinion?

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a well caffeinated and chocolate laden weekend. I picked up 5 pounds of Cafe Vienna coffee from my favorite coffee shop on Friday. It's an independent place in Owensboro Kentucky called Beyond the Brim. The owner is a friend of mine, I call him my "Guru of the Brew." This coffee is the bomb. It's so smooth and rich, I am in eternal love. For my birthday this Friday, my best friend got me an early gift of Choxie. I got an Espresso Thin and some of the Dark Chocolate Truffle Meltaways. Both are quite tasty.

Has anyone ever had Scharffen Berger chocolate? I've had the 82% Cacao Extra Dark chocolate and it's pretty nice. I just had a taste of the Mocha Bar. It's 62% with freshly roasted coffee. It's not as dark as I like and it has a somewhat strange texture, but the flavor is even and strong enough to qualify as a coffee flavored bar. I would recommend giving it a try.

Anyone tried the white chocolate M&Ms? I'm not a fan of white chocolate, but I'm curious.

So here's a loaded question: What's everyone's favorite truffle flavor? Mine would have to be espresso or plain dark chocolate.

OH MY GOD. I just thought I liked sex better....

;-)

Wednesday, one of my favorite days of the week.

The family and i head out for the day, into nimes. The inlaws greet us with the usual senso!love coffee, and then our little one is left with them for a bit while we do weekly shopping.

cut scene to me wandering about the super markets chocolate section, only to spy ferrero rocher, 2 kinds of boxes..Le Gasp!! can it be ?

IT IS..cappuchino flavoured rocher!! squirm. I quickley find my man, and drag him to the chocolate section, and leap up and down happily, and giving him several improtant reasons to part with 8 bucks.

He caved in and also buys me some nice minty foot cream because he knows i'll share the chocolates if he does, and because he's just that good.

Cut scene to joyfull reunion with 5 yr old, which is forgotten when chocolates are brought out.
More senso!love is shared out, and we hit the terrace in the garden to cath the sun.

The men hated the chocolate, mum in law and i loved them!! sooooo creamy , and silky, these babies are addictive , and utterly amazing.

They do tend to be very sweet, but the combination of coffee and chocolate was perfect, i would recommend them to anyone wanting to try them out.

Today was a good day.

Today I had the most delectable combination before work- a hot cup of coffee and a french truffle. So delicious.