Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Chocolate Friday: Summer Memorial Chocolate Coolers

Most of the U.S. is celebrating the arrival of Fall, but we're still in the triple digits here, so it's hard for me to think of Summer as done and gone.  I'm still staying indoors during the day, and drinking cooler-type drinks in the afternoons.  So, even though it may be a bit late for some, my Choco Friday offering this week is a salute to summer with a gathering of Chocolate Cooler recipes.

First up, a bump to my own Espresso-Ice Cocoaccino recipe.  Espresso ice is nice.  In creamy cocoa, even better.

Next, a recipe I stole and modified.  I've morped what was a delicious coffee milkshake recipe, originally by Merrie Schonbach for Beans and Bears (found via Coffee, Tea or Blog), into a SUPER delicious CHOCOLATE coffee milkshake recipe:

Chocolate Coffee Milkshake

* 1 pint of Chocolate ice cream
* 2 teaspoons finely ground coffee
* 1/2 cup light rum (optional)
* 4 to 6 scoops vanilla ice cream
* Chocolate shavings

Spoon coffee ice cream into blender. Add rum and finely ground coffee. Blend on high until creamy smooth. Pour into tall glasses, adding a scoop of the vanilla ice cream to each glass.  Top with whipped cream if you like.  Sprinkle chocolate shavings over the top.

And another of Merrie's concoctions ...

Frosty Mochas
* 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee
* 1 pint of vanilla ice cream, softenend
* 6 tablespoons of chocolate syrup
* 1 cup prepared cold coffee
Blend hot coffee and chocolate syrup in blender. Blend until smooth. Cool the mixture to room temperature. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl. Add the softened ice cream and cold coffee. With a rotary beater, beat until smooth. Spoon into tall glasses and serve immediately. 

Must try this, from Barista Guru:

Ice Cream Parlor Mocha Sodas
* 1/2 cup hot water coffee
* 8 teaspoons finely ground
* 2 cups milk
* 4 scoops chocolate ice cream
* 1 quart club soda
* Sweetened whipped cream or prepared whipped topping
Place hot water in a medium-sized pitcher. Stir in coffee. finely ground into a powder texture, until dissolved. Stir in milk. Place 1 scoop or ice cream in each of 4 ice cream soda glasses. Pour coffee/milk mixture equally into each glass. Fill glasses almost to brim with club soda. Top with sweetened whipping cream or prepared whipped topping. Serves 4.

OY that sounds good.  Got chocoverload?  Wait, I'm not done yet!

• Brazilian Iced Chocolate from Kris of of Anywhere But Here
• Chocolate Cherry Cooler from Cooks Recipes
• Chocolate Mint Sipper from Cooks Recipes
• Chocolate Fudge Shake from DrinksMixer.com.  Non-alcoholic, but still, could be deadly.  It uses fudge brownies.  !!

Alright, I guess that's enough to keep ME cool at least through the end of October, and by then it'll be time to start the yummy hot drinks.

Another National Coffee Day!

According to several sources, today is National Coffee Day!  Now, from my previous post on coffee holidays, there's some confusion about the date.  It would seem that the actual date of National Coffee Day depends on what nation you're in.  But because I'm such a global drinker ... er, thinker ... I vote that we celebrate all of them.  I'm not sure in what country today's holiday originates, and frankly, I don't care.  Any excuse to celebrate the holy bean is alright with me.

Big apologies to Ireland, I missed your Coffee Day on Sept. 19, and Costa Rica, which apparently celebrates Coffee Day on Sept. 12.  Dunno what I was doing those days, obviously NOT checking my trivia notes...  oh yeah, well the 19th was Piratey, so I was distracted by that patch over my eye.  Heh. 

Upcoming, Oct. 1 is National Coffee Day in Japan.  You have two days to prepare.  Get yer espresso machines warmed up. 

On another note, according to Kid's Castle, Sept. 29 is also National Ham Day, National Pancake Day, and National Pumpkin Day.  Are they making this stuff up? 

Coffee & Tea Blogs

I do love blogsurfing.  This morning, cup firmly in hand, I slurped and surfed, followed some links that led to some other links, and found some new blogs to add to my blogroll - some about coffee, some about tea:

Coffee Spills - a blog about coffee shops

Good Cup of Coffee - coffee and a good cause.  I don't usually like frenetic causers.  They make me uncomfortable, and make my conscience itch.  But I found it interesting to read the posts.

A Thought Over Coffee - a blog about  "the dreaming and planning of Cafe.Evoke, an art and coffee establishment, to construction and opening day"

Cha Dao - A blog that focuses on tea tasting reviews and notes, from many contributors (one of my favorite tea people - Cindy of Cuppa Tea - is a contributor).  Wonderful blog.  Check out the latest post on Kali Cha: Darjeeling or Oolong?   A new a tea I'll have to try!

Tea Arts - A blog about the Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony and "the many facets of Tea Culture".  Lots of cool photos.

Tamaryo - Unfortunately my high school french is long forgotten, so I'll have to find a translation tool.  In the meantime, I LOVE the photos on this tea blog.

Teasire - Lots of different tea stuff, a guy after my own heart.  In today's post, Mathew explains the origins of the blogname.

It's a Tea Word Kinda Morning

I'm not usually the kind of person who reads dictionaries, but I found myself browsing around the Infoplease.com website.  There's a good section all about tea, including history, cultivation preparation, etc., but there's also a bunch of definition trivia type stuff.  I learned quite a lot, without meaning to of course.  God forbid I should overload my gray matter this early in the morning ...

Did you know that

• pink tea is an informal term for "a formal tea or reception"?
• cambric tea is a mixture of hot water and milk, with sugar and, often, weak tea.
• maté (also called Yerba or Paraguay tea) isn't really tea, but it is as much of a stimulant and restorative as real tea.  It's less astringent than genuine tea, and contains considerable caffeine.  I've seen this product but I've never tried it.  If it's got the same properties as good strong black tea, why aren't we drinking more of it? Does it taste nasty?
• hybrid tea isn't tea either.  In fact, it's not for drinking at all. It's "a type of cultivated rose originally produced chiefly by crossing the tea rose and the hybrid perpetual".
• tea money is a bribe used to facilitate any business dealing (esp. in parts of China)

The best thing I found was The Tea Party Crossword Puzzle - great fun for crossword lovers.  Which, having browsed through all their listings and definitions and synonyms, I aced.  :)

National White Chocolate Day

According to American Food Holidays' list, today is National White Chocolate Day!  So, for Chocolate Friday, we're celebrating white chocolate.

White chocolate actually isn't considered to be chocolate at all.  Although both originate from the same plant - the cacao tree - according to the FDA, 'chocolate' must contain chocolate liquor, and white chocolate doesn't.  Liquor?  From the Food Reference website:

"According to the FDA, to be called 'chocolate' a product must contain chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the bitter intense chocolate flavor (and color) to dark and milk chocolates.

The Cook's Thesaurus says it this way:

"...white chocolate doesn't have any cocoa solids.  Since the FDA won't let American producers label a product  "chocolate" unless it has those cocoa solids, domestic white chocolate is known by a hodge-podge of different names. "

Well, ok, whatever.  It still comes from the cacao bean, so I'm all for it.  But what IS in white chocolate? 

"White chocolate contains cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, lecithin and flavorings (usually including vanilla). Cocoa butter is the fat from cocoa beans, extracted from the cocoa beans during the process of making chocolate and cocoa powder. Cocoa butter has very little 'chocolate' flavor."

I remember summers, slathering cocoa butter on myself, trying to get that freshly cooked, just-short-of-crispy shade of brown.  Me and my little group of friends, smelling like yummy human cookies baking in the sun.  Lord, the stupid things we did to our skin. 

Anyway, here are some recipes that use white chocolate for you to try:

• White Chocolate Butter - this would be great with scones, muffins, etc for brunch or afternoon tea parties.  YUM!
• White Chocolate Mousse - sounds totally decadent
• White chocolate and pecan nanaimo bars - from the Domestic Goddess
• White Chocolate Eggnog - Eggnog?  I can't wrap my brain around this one.  Must try it.  Uses white chocolate ligueur.
• Key Lime White Chocolate Coolers Recipe - I think it's a cookie, but I'm not sure...
• White Chocolate Macadamian Nut Cookies
• Macadamia Nut Chewies with White Chocolate

I found an awful lot of recipes combining white chocolate and macadamia nuts, so I'm gonna guess that's a good flavor combo.  I want to try the mousse though, especially after yesterday's pudding-fest.  My mouth is wanting more smooth-and-creamy. 

Happy White Chocolate Day!!

Chocolate Chip Pudding Pie

This is one of those recipe experiments that went a different direction than I planned, but was nevertheless, fabulous.  Chocolatey and crunchy, and totally delish.  And as a frozen dessert treat, great for a hot afternoon, which we're still getting here. 

Chocolate Chip Pudding Pie
The ingredients are simple: 
* Chocolate chip cookies
* Instant Chocolate pudding
* Almond flavoring or Amaretto non-dairy creamer
* One average pie tin

1. First, make yourself a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I use the standard Toll House recipe, slightly modified.  Sometimes I include a 1/4 cup rolled oats, and a handful of chopped walnute, but this time I had some delicious crunchy almond granola and I threw a handful of that in the batter. Thus began the almond avalanche.

(The hard thing, of course, is the temptation to just stop and eat the cookies.  Or, the dough, if you're a dough-eater like me.  Just leave enough to cover the pie tin!)

2. Next, place the cookies in the pie tin, covering the bottom. I broke the cookies into pieces so they'd fit, kinda like a cookie puzzle.  Break some cookies in half and line the rim as well. 

I think next time I try this, I'll try baking one ginormous cookie right in the bottom of the pie tin.

3. Mix up your instant chocolate pudding.  Or make it from scratch if you're feeling adventurous.  Me, I'm lazy.  Cold milk, pudding mix, wire wisk, 5 minutes and you're good to go. I replaced 1/4 cup of the milk required with 1/4 cup Amaretto flavored creamer, but if you don't have that, you could just use a few drops of almond flavoring.

I let the pudding set up a bit before pouring it into the pie tin, hoping it would be thick enough to keep the cookies down, but some of the smaller chunks floated to the top anyway.  So I just kept out a portion of the pudding, waited for it to fully set, and then poured it over the top to make a smooth surface.  Sprinkle almonds on top to complete the almond theme.  Place in freezer for an hour or so.

EAT! 

This stuff was so delicious!!  Frozen pudding is my new favorite, and with chocholate chip cookies for a crust, it's a winner with me all the way around.

Enjoy!

Coffee Notes

Still looking for just the right (and right price) espresso machine.  Thanks for those of you who sent notes and recommendations, I appreciate it muchly.  It's hard making this kind of decision on a limited budget.  Not as difficult as buying a car, but then, I'm not as fussy about my mobile tin can as I am about my coffee.  I'm hoping to convince the hubs that this is an essential item and a good Christmas gift for the "house".  He keeps saying "it's just coffee".  GASP!  Shock!  And after 15 years, I thought I knew him.

The other day he asked me to get him some coffee at the grocery store, just something, anything, because he ran out and doesn't like to have to grind beans and all that.  After the "it's just coffee" comment, I didn't offer to grind for him or use the French Press.  I love him, but, well, you know.  Pearls before swine and all that.  Heh.

The store selection was limited - something in a Peets, some generic looking brand in bins, and a fat row of Starbucks in bags, some ground, some whole bean.  There were rows and rows of coffee in cans, of course, but - even though he might not notice the difference - I couldn't do that to him. So I grabbed two bags of Starbucks, one called House Blend, one called Breakfast Blend. 

Just for grins, I tried the Breakfast Blend this morning, I'm sitting here with a cup in front of me, hoping each sip will get better.  Thinking maybe it's because I just brushed my teeth, and toothpaste afterburn is hanging on my taste buds.  Or maybe just being half-awake and fog-brainy, I can't process tastes yet.  I'll have to try again later in the day for a comparison test, but right now ... this is just awful.  I don't like it at all, not even for rocket fuel.

I went to BCCY's coffee tasting glossary to try to find some words to describe this flavor.  I guess buttery would apply.  And maybe nutty.  But maybe also stale.  Maybe it's better unground and fresher.  I dunno, I don't have enough experience of the other terms on the list to really do a good comparison. 

All I know is this cup is going down the sink.  I don't know if I'm brave enough to try the House Blend.  Maybe later.

Tuesday Tea Quotes

It IS Tuesday, right?  I feel like I lost time, was abducted by aliens.  Where did Monday go?  Oh yeah, it was stolen by PIRATES!  Heheh.  Ok, onward. Here are some miscellaneous tea quotes to carry with you:

"I dare not drink before a gig because I'll get tired and blow it. So I have to sit drinking tea in a caravan."
John Bonham (Drummer, Led Zeppelin)

"I'm a tidy sort of bloke. I don't like chaos. I kept records in the record rack, tea in the tea caddy, and pot in the pot box."
George Harrison

"American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957."
Tom Holt (Author)

"Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."
On the Road, Jack Kerouac

"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on."
Billy Connolly (Comedian)

Speaking of tea cozies, check this out:

Kitty and tea cozy from Step Into My Thimble, for those of you interested in knitting and cats and tea.  :)

Swash My Buckle!

Ahoy, and avast there, mateys!  David of Third World County reminded me that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLAPD), and I find from browsing the net that it's not just National TLAPD, it's INTERnational TLAPD.  So, I did some net swabbing, and found some semi interesting stuff.

I couldn't find an answer to my first question: Do Pirates drink coffee?  I did find a recipe for Real Pirates Grog, though.  Sounds nasty.  I always thought pirates just drank rum, but hey, if you're gonna rob and thieve, why not steal a ship full of tea or coffee?  Aye, that's the ticket!

Other than that, my search for coffee and pirates turned up very little.  Even Jeeves couldn't help.  I did find these though:

• "Attacking Pirates" coffee mug
• Coffee Pirates - a guy in NZ will bring coffee to any outdoor gathering in his custom built 4WD PirateMobile.  "Premium Espresso, Anywhere, Anytime..."  I wonder if he'd come to my neck of the woods.  Heh.
• Make Your Own Treasure Map - using coffee or tea to "age" it.

To learn more about TLAPD, check the Official TLAPD site, and these, for more piracy fun *aaarrrrrrrr):

• Yahoo Pirate Puzzles - this looks like just my speed.  Online piracy and puzzles.  Create your own pirate avatar!  Earn a pirate pet! 
• Take the Pirate Quiz
• Send a TLAPD e-Card
• Pirate Legends and Pirate History
• UPDATE:  Talk Like a Pirate Translator

Me, I'm gonna spend the afternoon with Captain Sparrow.  Splash a little Captain's rum in my coffee cup and let the swashbuckling begin!  That oughtta shiver me timbers, aye?  ARRRRRR.

Oh yeah, and I stole these pics from The Pirates Homepage.  (Am I violating some pirate code by fessing my thievery?)
         
    

Tea in a Bowl

I love this post about tea in a bowl - otherwise known as tea soup - from Stéphane at Tea Masters.

I'm going to try this for my next tea party.  What a great way to bring the actual tea preparation to the party and let the guests enjoy with all their senses, not just tasting the bit in their cup.  They get the full experience of the pouring / steeping of the tea, the sight of tea leaves unfurling, the smell and color of the tea, of the bowl...

Time to go shopping for just the right bowl and spoon!