Coffee & Reading the morning paper

• News: Govida is sadly closing all 128 of its stores in North America at the end of March 🙁 Read why, here.
• Local: Have you heard about DC’s Ratzilla? Seen it? Did you hear that DC may get mopeds? Ciao!
• Trending: Ben & Jerry’s has new flavors (7) topped with chocolate ganache: Whiskey Biz, Chocolate Caramel Cookie Dough, PB Over the Top, Salted Caramel Brownie, Strawberry Topped Tart, Thick Mint and Tiramisu! Yum. Which one will you try?
• Valentine’s Gifts: Discover Bar & Cocoa’s top picks for Valentine’s Day gifts, here.
• How-To: Tips from a florist. Increase your sales for Valentine’s Day in 2021!
• Listening: This podcast episode with Carla Martin on fine cacao and chocolate, what ‘soil’ means, ethical research, and more.
• Reading: Why you’re more creative in coffee shops. One of the reasons is a moderate level of ambient noise.
• Reading: Speaking of moderate ambient noise, how does noise affect how people taste bitterness, acidity, sweetness and coffee aroma + how much we’re willing to pay for coffee? A new study explains how. You can read the full paper, here.

Quote for the weekend

Travel to ancient Egypt with valentine’s day chocolate collections

Now is a great time to order chocolate for Valentine’s Day! We’re looking at the Vosges “Sacred Love” Valentine’s collection, inspired by ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. There are “self-love” gifts and chocolate boxes, too.

Did ancient Egyptians enjoy coffee or chocolate? No, but they did enjoy other luxurious ingredients found in some of the chocolate boxes below, like rose water and figs. Travel to Egypt via chocolate!

Order these chocolates, here!

{Pictured Above} The Bastet Collection, is a heart-shaped box “[…] as extraordinary as Bastet herself. The goddess of women’s secrets, fertility, music and health, Bastet is celebrated with chocolates made to elicit the pleasure that this deity is so often associated with.”

Have a lovely weekend. Take care and be well.

This post contains a few affiliate links, which means that if you do click through and then buy something, you may help support an insatiable coffee and chocolate habit at no cost to you. 🙂  Any written opinions here are by time cupsoul/our own.