Cadbury Chocolate Creme Egg Mocha

A few years ago, I made my first Cadbury Creme Egg Coffee by dissolving a whole Cadbury Creme Egg into a mug of hot coffee to both create a sweet, mocha-like drink and make good use of leftover Easter candy. The drink has become an Easter tradition for me. This year I decided to mix things up with Chocolate Cadbury Creme Eggs, which I hadn’t had before. These eggs are filled with a rich chocolate mousse-like filling that is sweet, but also has a strong chocolate flavor.

When I dropped the egg into my coffee, it melted smoothly and turned out an even more delicious drink than the classic Creme Egg does. It is rich, creamy and has a great mocha flavor – even though I didn’t add any milk. I will be stocking up on Chocolate Creme Eggs just to keep them on hand to make these after Easter – but you might want to pick some up for an Easter brunch or party because these eggs make serving coffee quite a bit more fun (and, of course, tasty).

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Minibru Coffee Mug, reviewed

A french press is one of my favorite tools to make a great cup of coffee. You can brew any type of bean or roast in there and get good results, and they’re easy to use. The only problem with a french press is that they’re typically designed to brew a whole pot. Now some are smaller than others, but if you only want one cup of coffee you might find yourself looking for an alternative. The Minibru Coffee Mug is one possible solution: a single-serving french press inside of a mug that promises to let you brew a great cup of coffee and drink it, too.

I recently got a Minibru and couldn’t wait to try it out. The instructions are simple: add coarsely ground coffee to the coffee line, add water to the water line, brew for 3 minutes, press and drink. I tried it exactly as written and my first few cups were terrible and incredibly weak. I watched a video on how to use the Minibru and noticed that they were using a lot more coffee than I was, so I decided to deviate from the directions and see if I could encourage a better performance out of the mug.

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Homemade Cool Lime Refresher

Starbucks launched their Refreshers drinks two summers ago. Laced with green coffee extract, the drinks are supposed to give you a mild energy boost as well as provide a cool, lightly sweetened drink – which makes them refreshing in two ways. I have been a big fan of them since they first came out because I definitely find them to be refreshing on a hot day because they aren’t too sweet but have a nice flavor.

This Homemade Cool Lime Refresher is an easy to make version of Starbucks’ Cool Lime Refresher that you can easily make at home. It is a lot like limemade, but with a lot less lime juice and sugar so it has a milder (and, yes, more refreshing) flavor. You need to use fresh lime juice to get the best results, but one lime will allow you to make one or two large drinks, so a little goes a long way in this recipe. It can also be doubled or tripled if you want to serve a crowd.

My homemade drink doesn’t contain any green coffee bean extract, but if you want to add some to yours, you can track it down at many health food stores in the nutritional supplement aisle. Personally, I just have a little regular coffee to pick me up and then the refresher to cool me down.
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Brew Coffee with Bling: Cuisinart Crystal Limited Edition Coffeemaker

What features do you look for when you are shopping for a new coffee machine? Do you look for form, function – or both? If form is high on your list and you like a little sparkle in your kitchen, than the Cuisinart Crystal Limited Edition Coffeemaker might be just the right machine for you. The coffeemaker is studded with dozens of tiny, sparkling Swarovski crystals that give it a very unique, blingy look. It comes in black and white, and should look good in just about any kitchen.

All talk of bling aside, this coffeemaker isn’t just about the window-dressing (although that does up the pricetag a big). It actually won ShopSmart (a division of Consumer Reports) magazine’s pick for top coffee maker, thanks to some great features. The coffeemaker has a large carafe that can brew up to 14 cups at a time, but is adjustable enough that you can also use it to brew a single cup. It lets you choose regular or bold brew strength and has “an advanced heater design” that brews hotter coffee than its competitors. The machine also happens to be extremely easy to use, so you won’t be reaching for a manual every morning just to work it.

You’re still paying a premium for the crystals here, but you’ll probably get your money’s worth out of a blingy coffeemaker because it will be such a conversation starter. If you want to get the features without the sparkle, you can opt for a plainer version of this coffeemaker instead.

What Level of Coffee Roast is Best?

What level of coffee roast is the best? Is a light roast better than a dark roast? Is a medium roast the best because it should appeal to the widest audience?

The answer is that one roast is not inherently better than another – it is all a matter of personal preference and what brings out the best flavor in the coffee beans being used. Using one roast as a “catch all” for every bean means that you are definitely going to lose out on a lot of unique flavors (and therefore better cups of coffee) that you could be enjoying, so it is good to approach coffee drinking and coffee roasts with an open mind.

In general premium coffee companies – from Starbucks down to very small, boutique roasteries – pay a lot more attention to bringing out the nuances in the beans, so you will be able to experience a wider range of roasts and a wide range of coffees when you choose their beans (and learn about why they opted for which type of roast, if you can ask someone who does the roasting!). A premium coffee roaster will roast the beans to different degrees depending on them beans themselves. If they are using Central American beans, it could turn out that they require a light roast that lets their natural citrus notes shine through. If they are using Sumatran beans, they might have to go to a dark roast in order to find the rich chocolate flavors that are in them. And both roasts will probably be excellent.

Inexpensive coffee producers typically want their coffee to taste exactly the same from batch to batch – so that a huge tub of classic Folgers, for instance, will taste about the same as it did 10 years ago – and they roast the beans to try to minimize flavor disparities, not to highlight the uniqueness of a given bean.

It is easy to make a blanket statement and say “I prefer light roasts” or “I prefer dark roasts,” and while it might be true most of the time, you might end up missing out on some very good, very drinkable coffees by sticking to one roast type across the board.