Beans and Leaves

Hi!

Alright, so in all honesty right now, you'll have to forgive me if I seem a bit all over the place. I just had a cup of straight up coffee on an empty stomach, and the caffeine has hit me really hard... So onto the rest of the post before I crash! ^_^

Given that I just had coffee, I was thinking about all the natural plants and such that we obtain caffeine from, and how flavorful the things made from them can be. The obvious ones are cocoa beans, coffee beans, and tea leaves. As is obvious, you get chocolate, tea, and coffee ^_^. I have to say that I love all of them, and seek to indulge in them, little treats every once in a while.

So chocolate... oh chocolate.... it's a lovely thing chocolate. Now I abhor the stereotype that when it's that time of the month, girls consume excessive amounts of chocolate, or if you're sad, you eat a lot of chocolate. I agree that it happens sometime. But really, chocolate is a delicacy. It's meant to be savored and relished a bit at a time. This probably comes from the fact that I am a super fan of dark chocolate. I admit I have a sweet tooth, and sometimes I just eat milk chocolate for the sole purpose of a sweet sugary treat. However, the small bite of dark chocolate that you savor as it slowly melts in your mouth can be complete bliss. You get the layers of flavor, from the bitterness of the chocolate to the slight hint of salts and sugars mixed into it. And what makes it amazing is that it can be used in so many ways. It gives me a luxurious, rich feeling when you eat it. And wasn't it considered a delicacy in the past? I still think it definitely is. I didn't always like dark chocolate. It's probably because I was never exposed to it before high school (my parents grew up in India, where Cadbury's is the most popular brand of chocolate, and all they make are milk chocolates). It was my high school librarian that introduced me to it one day. He had gotten a 5 pound slab of dark chocolate, and somehow I ended up with a small chunk of it myself. Since that day I began to reject my sweet tooth in favor of the bitterness of the dark side. ^_^.

The amazing thing about chocolate is that it can be eaten in so many different ways. From rich cakes, to chocolate chip cookies, to fondue, to hot cocoa, I really love them all. Now when it comes to brands of chocolate, my top favorites are Lindt and Ghiradelli's. Sure Hershey's is great for s'mores, and Godiva has an amazing selection of truffles. But Lindt and Ghiradelli's have just the right blends of dark chocolate for me. My exposure to Lindt was originally with their truffles. But on one of my trips to India, we stopped over in Brussels, and their chocolate shops in the airport were over flowing with various types of chocolate - I was drooling. I could name you all the amazing Belgian chocolates that blew my mind, but that would just take up unnecessary time and space. But the bar of 72% dark chocolate just was amazing. There's nothing else to really say about it. Ghiradelli's on the other hand, is really became my love the first time I went to San Francisco. We made it a point to stop by Ghiradelli's Square. I ordered the dark chocolate hot chocolate, and man, was it heaven or was it heaven. To top it off, their chocolates... ok, it was love at first taste. ^_^. But all these little things aside, chocolate has been a special part of my life growing up, and I definitely hope to pass that on to my kids in the future.

The best compliment to chocolate, is the wonderful coffee bean. The flavors of the two blend so well, and really bring out the best in each other. Now I've seen the bad side of coffee: needing the caffeine fix everyday to prevent the headaches and the like. But in small doses it can hit the spot just right. I was first introduced to coffee, when it was added to hot chocolate, not necessarily in a mocha way (that's coffee with chocolate added), but as a an extra layer of flavor. From then, with the aid of Starbucks, I had the occasional mixed drink (first with decaf, and then later regular). Since I had it in my hot chocolate, I've loved adding just hint of coffee to cookies, brownies, and cakes, just to bring out the chocolate flavor. If I'm honest, I am not much of a fan of the bitterness of coffee like I am with chocolate. I'm not really sure why, but it might have to do with the after taste. But my enjoyment of coffee is heavily tempered by my reaction to the caffeine in it. For example, freshman year, I was making hot chocolate and as usual had added some brewed coffee to it. But I had added a bit more than I normally did. In the following hour after I had consumed the drink, I was jumping off the walls (even worse than having a super dose of sugar [a post for another time]). Immediately following, I crashed. In re-telling the story, I liken it to a crash after a super high. I was out for the entire night. You might wonder then why I could drink Starbucks drinks then. The coffee to milk ratio is very low, and I tend not to feel anything besides the flavoring and energy from the sugar. So despite the fact that the experience cautions me from drinking coffee, every once in a while I'll succumb to the temptation (like today) for something inexpensive and warm, and I'm on edge for hours after... I am dreading the crash.

So let's talk about a safer form of caffeine shall we? What do I refer to? Tea, of course! I have found that it is a safer method of obtaining caffeine, due to the lighter dose tea has (compared to coffee). My preferred type is green tea, which is not even the strongest form of tea. In increasing content of caffeine, you have white, green and black teas. My greatest exposure to various types of tea is at Teavana. It has more of an Asian influence when it comes to teas, but it is definitely my favorite place to try new blends. Growing up, I've had mostly chai (spiced Indian tea), with milk and sugar. My favorite is definitely the ginger tea that my mother makes: it has just the right level of spice and sugar, and definitely is comforting. Aside from that, I have yet to find a preparation of tea I do not like. Whether it's enjoying leaves steeped in warm water or the harsher preparations of spiced teas, I savor them all. In fact I drink tea for all sorts of reasons, from when I feel a bit under the weather to when I need a relaxing or warming drink. Tea is wonderful ^_^.

So all in all I think I'm reaching the end of my caffeine high... I can feel the headache coming on... So I shall retire to recover >.<.


A tribute to my "Dean Martin" radio station on Pandora for calming me down enough to write this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsgL35RCGcc
(though I personally love Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of the song ^_^. I just couldn't find a video of it!)