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Make Your Own Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

Chocolate-covered coffee beans are confections made by coating roasted coffee beans with chocolate that could be either dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or even white chocolate. They are just slightly sweet and especially the dark chocolate kind is rather intense.

The bitter flavor of the coffee beans can be overpowering for non-coffee-drinkers. Chocolate covered coffee beans are rich in saturated fat and have high caffeine content as well. If you are a coffee lover then you undoubtedly love coffee prepared in any way, shape or form. So chocolate covered coffee beans would be a popular treat for you! These tasty treats can be had at any coffee shop or specialty store. But you could also make your own as it is really quite simple.

All you need to do is to buy high quality coffee beans. Be sure they are fresh and not broken or damaged. Next purchase the chocolate. Dipping chocolate is easier to work with and it tends to set up nicer. Chocolate chips and chocolate squares will work too.

Melt and prepare the chocolate for dipping. All you need to do is carefully melt the chocolate in a pot. Once the chocolate is melted, simply place the beans in the pot to coat, and then remove with the fork. Set on wax paper to harden overnight.

Your tasty crunchy snack is ready!

The selection of coffee beans can be important in the making of chocolate covered coffee beans. You should buy a medium or dark roast, since a light roast will simply be too acidic for chocolate covered coffee beans. This is one reason why chocolate covered espresso beans are a popular sell, since it's a very dark roast.

Have fun & Enjoy!!!

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** The Ultimate Blog Party 2009 **

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March 20th - 27th!!!

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You could win these earrings from our very own online store, Acorn Accessories!!!

If you want to win these earrings (or any pair of earrings from Acorn Accessories), be sure to blog about them (INTL 63)!!!

More Amazing Teapots

I truly hope you enjoy my virtual collection of Amazing Teapots...

This first teapot is called Aria and was created by Ricky Maldonado. This beautiful burnished design is coil-built with a dotted glaze over terra sigillata.

The next teapot in my virtual collection is a Patsy Cox creation called, Mother. It is wheel-thrown with thrown and pulled additions. It has a glazed interior and an engobe exterior.

This last teapot on display (but certainly not least) is called, Toy Tea and was created by Robert "Boomer" Moore.

It is assembled and wheel-thrown and included some additional altered parts. It has multiple sprayed layers of high-fire copper-bearing glazes.

So, wonderfully creative!!!

Coffee Beans from Animal Droppings???

Yes, you read the title correctly...

Kopi Luwak coffee beans have actually been eaten by a small animal before being collected and roasted.

Animalcoffee is the original source of authentic kopi luwak on the internet.

Based in Indonesia Animalcoffee has been supplying genuine wild collected kopi luwak from Sumatra, Java and Bali since 2002. The kopi luwak is sourced directly from coffee plantations as luwak scats (droppings) so there is no ambiguity regarding the authenticity of the coffee beans.

Animalcoffee is apparently the ONLY source of natural, unprocessed kopi luwak.

Surprise someone with a gift box of the rarest coffee there is. It's also the strangest in my opinion!

Java-Log: The World's Only Eco-Friendly Coffee Firelog

For you real coffee-lovers out there...

Check out Java-Log ~ the most innovative, funky new fireplace item that has quickly become the people’s choice firelog. It offers a wonderful solution to the much detested chemical smell often associated with other firelogs since Java-Log has No Chemical Smell.

Java-logs are man-made fireplace logs that are made up mostly of coffee grounds.

For for the environmentally conscious coffee-drinker, you will appreciate the fact that Java-Log contributes positively to several environmental concerns and burns beautifully, hassle free.

Java-logs burn a natural flame since coffee has 25% more energy than wood and 3x the flame per unit of energy. Java-Logs produce significantly fewer emissions than firewood.

What a "crazy-fun" gift idea for a fellow coffee-lover!

Brew Perfect Coffee Every Time

Getting a great cup o' joe doesn't have to mean paying a bundle at your local coffee spot. The best coffee you've ever tasted is just a few easy steps away, right in your own home!

1. Start with freshly roasted whole bean coffee and grind it as you use it.

2. Use good water. Remember, coffee is 98-99% water.

3. Measure your coffee. Two Tablespoons of coffee to every 8oz cup of water.

4. Brew by an Auto-Drip coffee maker or French Press. When using an Auto-Drip coffee maker, DO NOT leave the brewed coffee on the burner!!! It will continue to cook and will become bitter in a few minutes. Transfer the brewed coffee to a good thermos for flavor's sake.

5. Grinding Coffee Beans- for brewing good coffee is the way to go! Grinding your own coffee beans just before brewing helps ensure the freshest, best tasting coffee.

6. Storing Your Coffee. Coffee beans tend to lose their flavor rather quickly and even faster after being ground. It is best to keep your coffee whole bean until used. Always keep your coffee in a sealed container that prevents the coffee from being exposed to the open air. Coffee can be kept fresh in a sealed container in a cupboard for a couple of weeks.If you need to keep your coffee longer than two weeks, keep it in a sealed container in your freezer. When keeping coffee in the freezer, take out only the amount you are going to use and put the remainder back into the freezer immediatly. Coffee kept in the freezer will last a month or more.

7. After brewing coffee should be served immediatly. To keep coffee hot for a longer period of time, use a vacuum pitcher, an airpot or an insulated travel mug. This is the only way true coffee flavor can be maintained. Keeping coffee on a warmer destroys the flavor after as little as twenty minutes, resulting in a bitter tasting cup of coffee.

Amazing Teapots - Part 2

"The teapot is to the potter what the convas is to the painter".

I hope you enjoy these amazing teapots...

This first amazing teapot is called "Ritual Teapot". It is slab-built, stamped white stonware created by Lana Wilson.

This second amazing teapot, called "The Odds Are Stacked", was designed by Robert L. Wood. It is slab-built earthware clay and steel; slip with oxide and frit, textured surface embedded with brokern pottery shards and peices of brick and steel bolts.

How fun is that?

This third amazing teapot, called "Moss Teapot", was designed by Shari Sikora. It is wheel-thrown made from altered raku clay with a copper base (bisque-and-raku fired).

Amazingly creative!

Amazing Teapots - Part 1

These unique stone teapots are all hand carved, each one with truly amazing craftsmanship. Although all of these teapots are carved from stone, some look like bronze, some look like wood, and some look like bamboo, depending on the surface treatment.

ChengNi Stone Teapots are all hand carved from a single piece of ChengNi Stone!

These designs are truly amazing!