National Coffee Day: Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans and Starbucks Verismo Brewer Giveaway

Guys, I’m so excited that Staples has sponsored TWO fabulous giveaways today to celebrate National Coffee Day! I have a great recipe to share with the hard-core coffeeists out there, and YOU have the chance to win one of two Starbucks Verismo home brewer systems!  First – the recipe.  I’m going to show you today how to make chocolate covered coffee beans: a caffeine-laced treat for true coffee lovers.

A quick note on these bad boys – they are a treat for moderation, for sure.  Caffeine content is never the same from one variety of bean to the next (or even from bean to bean) so I can’t give you an exact content, but after a quick Google search,  it looks like most beans have a caffeine content averaging around 10mg each. When you bear in mind that a shot of espresso at Starbucks has 75mg caffeine, a handful of chocolate covered coffee beans should give you a sufficient perk!

Here’s all you will need:

• 7 oz. microwaveable dipping chocolate
• 1 c. Espresso beans (you can dip less and save the chocolate for another batch)
• Wax paper

Note: If you have trouble finding easily microwaveable dipping chocolate, you can melt 1 tsp. shortening with 1/2 c. milk chocolate chips for each 1/2 c. of beans you want to dip.  I really like the convenience of the microwave pack, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

It’s truly as easy as melting the chocolate according to the package directions, dipping each bean, and placing it on wax paper to cool and harden.

That’s a little bit easier said than done, though.  Dipping is easy!  Placing neatly on the paper?  Not so much.  I have dipped lots of different kinds of treats, and these tiny beans have been the most challenging to make look nice and neat – but here are a few tips I found helpful.

I just got my fingers dirty.  I dipped each bean, and balanced the bean, round side up on the tip of my finger.  Then, I dotted it flat side down to the paper – and it stuck.  You want to avoid any puddles, and if your placement gets messy, it’s better to pick you bean back up and put it somewhere else on your wax paper.  As the chocolate hardens, any drips or puddles touching the bean will harden that way, and you’ll get weird spikes.  To keep them neat, you want one round blob per bean!  I dipped about 1/2 cup of beans and it took me about 30 minutes.  So plan on about an hour per cup of beans, if you’re planning large batches.

These are a nice (if addicting!) treat, and because they’re so small, they wrap up to make fun gifts for coffee-loving friends.  Just find a small tin or container, and wrap with baker’s twine for an instant pick-me-up!

I have something else to share with you today, too – the new Starbucks Verismo home brewing system.  Staples sent me one of these bad boys to try out, and it makes an AMAZING home latte!

It’s an instant-brew system, so you have coffee in just minutes (espresso in even less).  Pairing espresso pods with milk pods makes up the best latte I’ve ever had at home.  It’s seriously coffeehouse quality right in your own kitchen.

Now, I just need to learn how to make those latte art swirls…

Now – the scoop on the GIVEAWAYS today!  People reach for a cup of coffee at a few points during the day.  I’ve got my eye-opener, obviously, but I go for a cup around 9am, and then another when I hit that 3pm wall!  So out on Twitter, there will be TWO one-hour FLASH giveaways.  From 9am-10am EST and again at 3pm-4pm EST, you can enter by retweeting my #CoffeeBuzz tweet and thank @Staples for the chance to win one of these awesome home brewing systems!  Just be sure you’re following me on Twitter @HappyHrProjects to see your chances to win at 9:00 am and 3:00 pm east-coast time!

Happy National Coffee Day!