At Sweet Beauty we promote the benefits of feeling good in order to feel beautiful and what makes you feel better than chocolate? There are many things that feel good, but chocolate is still tops in our book and we don’t like to be limited to just eating bars of it, although that is pretty great. We have searched through the best drinking chocolate recipes far and wide. We tried and loved them all, but needed something even better. We invite you to try it for yourself.

16 oz Whole Milk
4 oz Heavy Cream or Half and Half
4 oz Roughly Chopped Organic Chocolate, 75% or higher
2 Fresh Vanilla Beans or 1.5 t Vanilla Extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup Cane Sugar, Honey or Agave Nectar

Gently heat the Milk and Cream, being careful not to scald. Scrape the Vanilla Beans and add to the simmering Milk and Cream. Add the Chocolate. Gently stir until melted. Add Your Chosen Sweetener. Stir Well. Top with Fresh Made Whipped Cream.

For different twist on this recipe you could add:
2 Cinnamon Sticks
Chili Water (Simmer chili pepper cut in half and cleaned in 2 cups of water until reduced by half, strain)
Freshly ground nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts
Espresso

You can adjust the quantity of Milk, Cream or Half and Half. The drink will be thinner and you get healthier.
I suppose you will too

Enjoy!

I eat a lot of chocolate since it is my passion and my business. Most of it is good, more than good, but I don’t think about it once it is gone. On a recent trip to Spain, I happened across Valor Chocolate or Chocolates Valor out of Alicante and I have been thinking about Valor ever since. I only spent a few fabulous moments at a Valor Chocolate cafe in Valencia, but my experience was wonderful.

I purchased a simple hot chocolate or so I thought. What I got was an extremely rich drinking chocolate sort of similar to how chocolate was consumed long ago when chocolate was first introduced to Europe. The drink is a tad sweeter since the processing of chocolate has changed dramatically, but wonderful all the same. I also purchased a few chocolate bars to take home which turned out to be nicely flavored and balanced. Valor does use Soy Lecithin, but there are worse things to worry about.

Although I won’t visit the Valor Cafe for a while, I have located a US source, in fact many, I have been out of the loop. You can visit www.worldpantry.com to purchase their chocolate drink mix and or bars. Enjoy.

I am not too much of a romantic, but i did feel the desire to make some cookies with some extra love for my sweet family. Here is the recipe for the cookies that make my family say “you do love us” I choose organic with all of these ingredients, but they will still taste wonderful if you are unable to do the same.

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Cane Sugar
1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (Chocolate #1)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter
1/2 cup Earth Balance Shortening
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
12 oz Dark Chocolate Bar broken into small pieces. (Chocolate #2)
1/2 cup Chocolate Nibs, slightly grounded. (Chocolate #3)

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees

Beat butter and shortening together, add sugar and vanilla and mix well. Add eggs one at time, mix well. Mix dry ingredients together, mix well. Add dry ingredient mixture to butter mixture and mix well.

Prepare a cookie sheet with a non stick mat. 1 Tablespoon of dough make one cookie, although you can do whatever you like. Enjoy.

You are in Hawaii…Can your visit to this tropical paradise be made any better?

Yes it can. Especially if you come across The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory who grows the only Cacao Beans in the US.

The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory began when couple of Pam and Bob left North Carolina and headed to island of Hawaii after they purchased land that had Cacao_tree_2 existing Cacao Trees. Growing Cacao wasn’t a life long dream, it sort of just happened. In fact, Bob mentioned that he didn’t even know that chocolate grew on trees.

The tour commenced right in the middle of the trees, trees with cacao pods growing right off the branches. Bob explained that the trees take 4 years to mature, therefore they had an existing crop with which to work with. They had to learn on the job and have come a long way since then. The trees are Forestero, chosen originally because of their hardiness. They only had one type of bean to work Open_pod_2 with and did not want to compromise the only bean grown in the US. The Original Chocolate Factory does not blend their beans at all. They get one chance to get the chocolate right, so it better be good, and it is. I tried their dark and milk chocolate and was wonderfully surprised. The chocolate was smooth and well balanced.

If you are in Hawaii and you love chocolate, you should make it to this place. I flew over from Maui and back in a day. Or you can order online @ www.originalhawaiianchocolatefactory.com