Homemade Espresso Truffle Latte

One of the holiday offerings at Starbucks is a mocha that is a spinoff of their new Signature Hot Chocolate: the Espresso Truffle. It’s the hot chocolate combined with a shot or two of espresso. The hot chocolate alone is much richer tasting than the chocolate syrup they use for their regular mochas, and I recreated that feeling for this homemade version by adding melted chocolate to regular hot cocoa mix. The extra cocoa butter from the chocolate makes the drink creamier and more chocolaty, without just tasting like you dumped too much hot chocolate mix (and sugar) into your cup. You can either use a shot of espresso to finish of your drink, or use a little less milk and substitute strong coffee.

It makes a delicious – and fairly decadent – drink for a fraction of the cost of going to a coffee shop and not much more effort than you would use when adding regular milk and sugar to coffee at home.

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Joe to Go Coffee Tote

If you’re still searching for a gift for the coffee-lover in your life, you might want to take a look at the Joe to Go Coffee Tote. It’s unique, it’s practical and it’s something that your coffee drinker probably doesn’t have.

The coffee tote is a traveling coffee set that gives you far more options than, for instance, an ordinary thermos does. It is a takeoff on far more common wine totes, that give you an easy, elegant way to carry and drink your wine, whether you’re picnicking or taking in a concert. The set includes a vacuum flask, two insulated mugs and a container for cream, as well as spoons and napkins. Everything is coordinating in stainless steel. The set is neatly packaged in a well-styled canvas bag with a shoulder strap than makes toting the tote easy.

While most coffee-drinkers have thermoses or insulated cups already, this gives you more options for preparing and serving the coffee – just as many as you would have at home, in fact, since you can tote the creamer with you and keep packaged sugars in one of the tote’s zip pockets.

Starbucks Holiday Sale

The only time that Starbucks puts anything on sale is when they’re clearing out post-promotion merchandise to make room for new season items. But, probably thanks in part to the economy, they’ve changed their tradition this year and are putting all of their retail merchandise and whole bean coffee on sale for 20% off. The sale runs through December 15th. Drinks, unfortunately, aren’t on the sales list, but this is a great time to pick up some holiday gifts, like a tea or coffee sampler. I’m appreciating the price drop on the whole bean coffee, too, since I love to brew my beans at home.

Trader Joe’s Have Your Espresso & Eat It, Too, reviewed

Trader Joe’s got a little cute when it came to putting a name on one of their newest frozen desserts, dubbing it Have Your Espresso & Eat It Too. The name is quite a mouthful for the four single-serving mousses inside the box. The directions say to simply defrost and serve for “intense espresso mousse atop  layer of very chocolate mousse.”

Right off the bat, these get an A+ for presentation. Each layered mousse is in an aysemmetrical shot glass that looks like something you might be served at an upscale restaurant (though the cups are plastic, not glass). Each mousse is topped with a chocolate covered espresso bean and a dusting of cocoa powder. The espresso mousse is delicious, with a really nice, light coffee flavor and the consistency of a cloud. The chocolate mousse is quite heavy and has a slightly grainy texture to it, even after a very long defrost. It is more dominant than the espresso, but the overall combination is not bad. That said, I could eat a whole container of the espresso and wouldn’t miss the chocolate one bit – as long as I still got the chocolate covered bean on top.

Speaking of defrosting, I found the defrost directions on the package to be misleading. The mousses were still icy after hours in the fridge and were definitely best when defrosted completely at room temperature (70F in my kitchen) for about an hour after taking them out of the freezer.

Starbucks Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino, reviewed

The bottled Starbucks frappuccinos are generally more convenient (and can be quite a bit more cost effective) than the blended drinks in Starbucks Cafes. For a long time, they have only been available in a few flavors, but some special editions were released for the holidays, including the Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino.

The drink tastes like a liquid Junior Mint or York peppermint patty. It has a great dark chocolate flavor, not too sweet but very rich because of the creaminess of the frappuccino. I prefer it to regular mocha (hopefully the dark chocolate alone will become a fixture in the lineup). The mint is just strong enough to cut through the chocolate without  overwhelming it. It reminds me a bit of stirring a candy cane in hot chocolate and then licking the peppermint. It’s a great seasonal drink and fits the holidays well.