Like coffee, cocoa does not develop its characteristic taste, aroma and rich brown color until the beans have been roasted. 

Don’t wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn’t like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good. 

New Orleans is the capital of iced coffee, and walking through the French Quarter, sipping a tall, creamy iced coffee is a treat. Not only does every coffee shop serve the drink, but most cafés offer several types on their menus, including regular and flavored varieties. Iced coffee can be a delicious drink, but made and served improperly it can be thin, watery and bitter. In New Orleans, iced coffee is so popular because of how the coffee itself is made. (Side note – click here to read a recent USA Today article discussing iced coffee as the summer of 2009’s hottest beverage as well as here for an interview with Gimme! Coffee’s CEO who gives tips for how to cold brew iced coffee at home.)

Iced coffee is not simply left-over hot coffee poured over ice. Doing so simply results in a diluted, watery drink. The preferred way for making iced coffee is the toddy method, which is an incredibly simple process that requires some time. The toddy method is named for the owner of the Toddy Coffee company, which manufactures kits for making toddy coffee at home. The kit contains a plastic urn and a glass carafe. The urn has a very fine filter in the bottom with a cork covering the hole beneath the filter. The urn fits on top of the carafe. The basic recipe for toddy coffee requires one pound of ground coffee placed in the container and the addition of nine cups of cold water. The coffee mixture is left to steep overnight, around 12 hours. The next morning, the cork is removed, and the liquid coffee flows into the carafe. The filter ensures that no grounds mix with the liquid.

The ratio of one pound of coffee to nine cups of water means that the coffee is stronger than regularly prepared drip coffee. However, cold-processed coffee is smoother than its hot-brewed counterpart because the volatile oils in the coffee are not burned or scorched, leaving no bitter taste. Rather, the coffee flavor develops during the 12-hour steeping period.

In New Orleans, local companies such as PJ’s, Royal Blend and Community Coffee are well known for their iced beverages. Most serve the drink in a tall glass with milk or cream already added, with some adding sugar or other sweeteners for additional flavor. I have visited many other cafes in hot, tropical climates, but nowhere else is iced coffee so prevalent and offered with such variety. It makes for a smooth, creamy, refreshing change of flavor, and I’m looking forward to heading back to the Big Easy for another tall iced coffee.    

Milton Hershey aspired to produce chocolate in such a quantity that it could be made affordable for every man, woman and child. 

After about 20 years of marriage, I’m finally starting to scratch the surface of that one (what women want). And I think the answer lies somewhere between conversation and chocolate.