I absolutely enjoy going to Caribou Coffee!!  I think their coffee is the BEST and I really enjoy the atmosphere they have created in their shops.  This company was started in the twin city area and for those who don’t live in MN or one of the other 15 states it has expanded into, they are missing out on a great coffee shop experience.  I really like the fact that they strive to buy coffee from foreign countries at fair prices rather than taking advantage of cheap labor.  Caribou recently started using real melted chocolate in their chocolate flavored coffees—what more could a chocoholic ask for?

I certainly have my favorite beverages, but I enjoy favorites from many different types of beverages offered.  During the summer months, I really like their coolers and smoothies.  My favorite summer beverage is the Campfire Mocha cooler or the Strawberry/Banana smoothie.  My kids always like the Oreo Snowdrifts.  In the fall, they offer a wonderful Pumpkin Spice cooler that is amazing and at Christmas time they whip up a sensational HO HO Mocha!!  Any other time during the cold months, I really enjoy the Campfire Mocha hot coffee beverage. 

You can sign up  to receive emails from Caribou and often on your birthday you will receive an email for a FREE coffee.  Throughout the year you will receive other promotional emails for free or reduced beverages.  Often on the first day of summer you can stop in the store during a certain time and receive a free sample of a new beverage being offered during the summer. 

https://shop.cariboucoffee.com/asp/youraccount/emailsignup.asp

Another fun thing they do is have a daily trivia question posted that you will receive $.10 off your beverage if you get the answer correct.  Caribou is also trying hard to conserve on paper cups and cup wraps, so if you bring in a specially purchased sustainability mug—you receive $.50 off your beverage purchase.  At their website, you can submit phrases about what you “stay awake for” that could be printed on their cups.

Rich Thornton Chocolates Flavor of Thornton Chocolates I love chocolate. I love chocolate a lot, though as I’ve grown older I’ve found this love has become more limited. Companies whose chocolates I used to enjoy, companies similar to Thornton Chocolates, just don’t quite cut it anymore, not most of the time. For one thing, I find I can only indulge a little at a time now. A bar that would have lasted me a few days when I was younger now lasts me a few weeks. Also, I find it much harder to appreciate chocolate with a lot of sugar in it; where I was not particular before, now companies that “milk-and-sugar down” their chocolate, like Thornton Chocolates and almost every other company, just don’t do it for me. I want chocolate that is rich, dark, and with a hint of bitterness. Cost of Thornton Chocolates Chocolate is both cheap and expensive. While I certainly don’t want to pay a lot of money for a luxury like chocolate, and I am as guilty as the next person of trying to get the best deal even if it means fudging on quality (chocolate pun!), it seems to me that most chocolate is just too cheap. Even label chocolates like Thornton chocolates or others are so cheap sometimes that I have to wonder just what are they putting in those chocolates? Better question, what aren’t they putting in those chocolates. I’ll tell you what: good, high quality chocolate. Either they use cheap beans, or they increase the amount of other ingredients and flavorings to mask the lack of chocolate in their chocolate. I don’t know that Thornton chocolates is guilty of this, certainly no more than every company in the world, but it is disturbing to me. Of course, it is highly unlikely that I would ever be able to do anything about this since the sad fact is that most people would prefer cheap milk chocolate from Thornton chocolates than rich, pure, dark chocolate (assuming both of those are offered by one company). Choice of Thornton Chocolates So, we choose day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year which kinds of chocolate companies we are going to support. Hersheys, Ghirardelli, Lindt, or Thornton Chocolates? Or make our own? Or an organic, family-owned, fair trade, locally grown chocolate company? Or none at all (yes, there are people out there who choose this, and yes I am shocked too). Ultimately, the chocolate fate of the world is in the hands of the individual buyers (or boycotters).

I love Ben and Jerry’s.In my opinion it is the best ice cream in the world. Some of my favorites include Cheesecake Brownie,   Chunky Monkey, Cinnamon buns and Mint Chocolate Chunk. Ben and Jerry’s is an all American ice cream company. On May 5, 1978 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened their first ice cream parlor in Burlington,Vermont. And in 1983, Ben & Jerry used their ice cream to make a 27,102 pound ice cream sundae, that in it’s self is amazing, but even more so is the idea of eating that beast. In 2005 on Earth day,when the U.S Senate proposed opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling,Ben and Jerry put a 900 pound Baked Alaska on the front steps of the U.S Capital Building. Ben and Jerry have been using their world Awesome ice cream to help people all over the world. Not only have Ben and Jerry turned Ben and Jerry’s into the remarkable company that it is,but they have created a group of loyalist fans who will indulge into a carton of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream knowing that satisfaction is only one spoonful of deliciousness away.

Making Lindt

Lindt is Delicious

Lindt was not in my vocabulary when I moved to Germany nearly thirty years ago.   I was familiar with Hershey and and Nestle and all the great American Chocolate makers.  Then I moved to Germany and found out there was a whole other world of chocolate makers and their product was from a higher level than I was used to.  It is hard to convince someone who loves Hersey Special Dark that the chocolate they love isn’t very good, but having tasted it I tried some American Chocolate and it seemed like I was chewing on a great big bar of sugary wax.  Lindt is one of the great chocolatiers of Europe and their chocolate is creamy and flavorful.  The chocolate that Lindt produces has a depth of flavor and texture that is incomparable in the United States.  There are some other rivals that may even surpass Lindt depending on the specific chocolate goody that you are indulging, but over all they are definitely one of the best.

Lindt Availability

Lindt is now sold at groceries and retailers around the world.  It is awesome that they have decided to import at such a high level and still keep the product at the top of the market.  When I returned from Germany after a couple years I had to go to specialty import stores or high end grocery stores to find a decent bar of chocolate like the ones that Lindt makes.  I couldn’t stomach Snickers and Hershey Almond bars, and definitely wasn’t interested in Milky Way or Mars Bars.