Don’t forget that tomorrow, Election Day, Ben & Jerry’s is offering a free scoop of ice cream at any of their participating Scoop Shops between 5 and 8 pm!

Find your nearest shop here, and you don’t even need a voting sticker now!

(Starbucks is also offering a free tall drip coffee for all customers, and Krispy Kreme will be giving away free star-shaped patriotic donuts if you bring your “I Voted” sticker!)

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

This week’s Chocolate Zen is a delicious-looking hot chocolate. I’m not sure why it’s in a glass but it sure looks pretty!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to make a Starbucks run for another Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (get it with a shot of espresso – it’s amazing! Thanks for the idea, 6thFloor!).

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I’m so glad it’s time for hot chocolate! Even though I live in the desert I love the cold: I live for fall and I don’t mind winter and snow. That’s why I’m always happy when I realize that it’s time for Starbucks to launch their pumpkin and peppermint flavor shots. This year, however, they’ve launched something new – premium hot chocolates!

Though they’ve been available in Europe and Asia for the last two years, Starbucks decided to bring things home as the demand for premium chocolate has increased. I had the chance to try one and I don’t know what I’ll do to get my caffeine kick at the same time, because my visits to Starbucks for the rest of the season will include a hot chocolate!

They’ve launched three flavors:

~ Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate: “Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate is a rich, creamy European-style hot chocolate made with our signature blend of four cocoas. This sophisticated hot chocolate is pure indulgence, made with no artificial ingredients – just four distinctive cocoas, sugar, natural vanilla extract, and milk! It is topped with fresh whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.”

~ Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate: “This delicious sweet and salty combination brings together our rich, indulgent Signature Hot Chocolate and the flavors of buttery caramel and smoked sea salt. It is topped with whipped cream, a swirl of caramel and a sprinkle of our sea salt topping – a combination of artisan sea salt and Turbinado sugar from Hawaii.”

~ Hazelnut Hot Chocolate: “We’ve accented our rich, creamy European-style Signature Hot Chocolate with hazelnut syrup to create a classic chocolate and nut flavor combination. It is topped with fresh whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.”

I had to try the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate because I can’t resist a drink with both chocolate and salt. I’m only human. I’ll eventually get around to trying the other two, but the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate is only available for a limited time, so I’m taking advantage of it while it’s around!

The new drinks seem to concentrate more on chocolate than milk (using four different cocoas from West Africa), resulting in a richer-than-usual drink. The salt is French sea salt blended with Hawaiian Turbinado sugar. The salt is smoked over burning chardonnay barrels and sprinkled on top of the whipped cream. Pure heaven.

Have you tried the new premium hot chocolates? What did you think?

[image used with permission from starbucks.com]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

In The Lunchbox

The most obvious is chocolate in the lunchbox. Mass Recipes has a Lunchbox Chocolate Banana Snackin’ Bar that looks pretty good.

My girls also like the regular old mini candybars for a post-sandwich treat. Just make sure you pack it close to the ice pack for a little while longer.

I came across this Charlie & the Chocolate Factory old-school style lunchbox from Lunchbox.com. I didn’t even know they made the metal boxes anymore.

Another fun way to mix things up a little: Instead of plain old peanut butter and jelly, spread peanut butter on one slice of bread and Nutella on the other.

Chocolate for Teachers

I haven’t met a single teacher that doesn’t love chocolate. My faithful stand-by for all things gift-giving is a See’s Candies gift card. I started off giving Starbucks cards a couple of times to my kids’ teachers and in the thank you notes they always mentioned using it on hot chocolate. I decided coffee is apparently more hit-or-miss than I thought and that chocolate is the universally appreciated gift. So that’s what they get and you can bet there have been no complaints! The gift cards can be used for anything in the shop, including pre-packaged boxes or pack your own.

If a gift basket is more your style Velvet Ribbon Baskets has chocolate-themed gift baskets ranging from $18.95 to $69.95.

Chocolate Electronics

Chocolate electronics? In a probably not-so-weird way when something is named “Chocolate” it makes me want to check it out that much more. Case in point: The Verizon LG Chocolate phone. I don’t need a cell phone but this one’s pretty and shiny and with the 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD slot, and a bunch of music features this is perfect for the high school or college student.

And how about the new colorful Dell Inspiron laptops? They have a brown one named “Espresso Brown” which is really calling my name. Maybe for Christmas 2009.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

- Chocolate Obsession reviews… bacon-flavored chocolate. For real.

- The Chocolate Nerd found Guayabitas: “sweet guava jelly drops rolled in sunkissed Costa Rican dark chocolate.”

- Chocablog has an amazingly huge slab of milk chocolate, caramel milk chocolate and white chocolate swirled together. A bit of perspective can be found here. Chocablog also reviews Cadbury’s Dairy Milk with Turkish. I’ve always wondered about Turkish Delight, and though it’s not the same as the Cadbury I appreciated the explanation.

- David Lebovitz shares his recipe for Devil’s Food Cake. The pictures are amazing.

- Hot Chocolate has a post from a few weeks ago about Starbucks partnering up with Hershey to bring chocolate items to their stores. It’ll be interesting to see how well this is received after the apparent Hershey revolt.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

A couple of years ago I tried to duplicate a very popular iced mocha coffee beverage from a very popular coffee chain. The version I like the best is sold in cute little 9 oz bottles at the grocery store that cost an arm and a leg. I looked it up online and had a slim little collection of recipes in my folder dedicated to this one thing. Anyway, it failed miserably. I even bought an espresso maker (albeit a cheapy one) to no avail. I just couldn’t get them to taste right so I gave up.

Lately I’ve been opting for the more figure-friendly sugar-free iced latte when I stop by the coffee chain. My imagination was sparked once again after I watched the barrista make it and I thought I’d give that one a go. I bought the vanilla syrup, popped the coffee carafe in the fridge after I was done with it one morning (I gave up on the espresso maker long ago) and waited until the afternoon slump.

I added about two tablespoons of vanilla syrup to the glass, a few cubes of ice, about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of chilled coffee, about 1/2 cup of milk, and one Splenda packet. I stirred and took a sip. You can probably guess where this is going, right? It tasted exactly like the drink I tried making years ago, the one sold in the cute little bottles. So I added about a tablespoon of chocolate syrup and I had it, I found my iced mocha drink. Now if I could only figure out the iced latte.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes