Anybody that has read this blog for very long has learned that I am a lover of coffee, even to a certain geeky level. I buy green beans. I roast them myself. I grind them right before I brew. I know where my coffee comes from in the world. That’s pretty geeky.

You know you can go into a lot of chocolate and candy shops and buy what they term “Chocolate-covered espresso beans”. I like them. But us coffee geeks know there’s no such beast as an “espresso bean”, so I figure if they’ll fib about that, there’s no telling what kind of coffee bean I’m getting.

Me being geeky and all, I figured I could do at least this good. So here it is. It’s difficult. (not)

Coffee bean chocolate clusters (Why clusters? Because I’m not going to sit there all day dipping individual beans)

Ingredients:
one pound of chocolate chips. I like semi-sweet. You get what YOU like. If you decide you don’t like how it turns out, dump it. You’re only gonna be out a couple of bucks. It’s a freakin’ recipe, not Holy Scripture. Change it if you want. Tell you what, though. Even the non-descript store branded chips will leave you with a better candy that you’ll buy at those mall candy shops.
half a pound of whole roasted coffee beans. This isn’t as difficult to get as it once was, what with a Starbucks on every corner, and many larger stores carrying whole roasted coffee now. Today I used Yemen Mokha Mattari that I roasted yesterday evening. The measure’s not exact. i used actually a cup and a third, measured. You can juggle the amount based on your desired coffee to chocolate ratio.

Procedure: (Look out. This is gonna be tough!)
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. When melted, stir in the beans, making sure everything is mostly uniform.

Drop by teaspoons full onto a sheet of waxed paper. Let cool.  The results may be ugly, but this (fortunately) won’t affect the taste.

Eat. But be aware that each cluster is the equivalent of a strong cup of fully leaded coffee.

Seriously, these beat those store-bought beans soooooo bad…