Per several reader’s request, here’s more info onTapestry of Grace (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and click on the link in the lower right that says “Map of the Humanities.” That’s the best explanation.):
Andrew and I have had our eye on Tapestry for a ridiculous number of years, considering how young our kids are. I read about it on Granny’s blog when the twins were still babies and have been intrigued by it ever since. It appealed to us on so many levels. It was a mix of Classical style learning and Charlotte Mason “living books.”‘ It allowed for all the children in the family to study the same thing at their individual grade level, which made prep-work easier for me and set us up for “whole family learning.”
Most people’s complaint about Tapestry is that it is so overwhelming out of the package. I had several years to eyeball it, dance around it, play with it, compare it to other curriculum (curricula? curriculums?), and learn about it. For those of you who are looking to pick a curriculum for August, this may not be possible (unless you jump in next week, which you should). But it might be worth postponing your school year an extra month or so for you to get a good handle on it.*
Despite folks claiming to be overwhelmed, I liked Tapestry precisely FOR it’s organization. The makers of Tapestry have done a great job of providing online training and support for learning their curriculum. Marcia Somerville, the mother who wrote the curriculum out of sheer exasperation with keeping up with all of her children at once, is excellent at explaining why she chose to organize things the way she did and then encourages mothers to use it how best suits their families. I love that she believes in her curriculum, but also wants people to use it flexibly, any way that works for them.
Once I sorted out which parts of it were pertinent to me, I have had no trouble turning exactly to what I needed at any given moment. I can identify our goals for the week, any projects ahead, and any books I need to preview with a glance at the Threads page. I know which column my kids are in (LG) and I only read that column. I don’t stress about what they could be doing if they were in fifth grade. That part isn’t for me right now.
I do read the Teacher’s Notes, partly because I’m a geek who loves history, but mostly because this helps me teach them. I don’t sit down with my notes and give a lecture. Instead, I read the notes ahead of time and then as we read books or do projects, I can subtly point out the connections and ideas that I want them to learn based on my reading. This means that I’m “stealth teaching” without my kids’ knowledge. Sneaky, isn’t it? (Andrew also tries to read the notes so he has an idea of how to quiz the kids and talk to them during the week. He’ll prep some Bible study that coincides. See? Learning together as a family…)
Finally, I view Tapestry not just as a “history program” but as the Context for which we study everything else. The curriculum includes our geography, our Bible (this is mostly for Year 1, in later Years it will be church history), our literature, and I can include their Writing Aids with it as well. This means that we’re reading, writing, and mapping all about the same subject. Because of this, the kids have far exceeded my expectations for these first few weeks in terms of the facts they are retaining and the ideas they are putting together. We’ve got little light bulbs going off all over the place and I LOVE IT.
If you still feel overwhelmed by Tapestry, remember to look at it as a “buffet.” Nobody can do it all. Nobody should do it all. I love that there are three or four projects for me to pick from so that if one is just too messy for my anti-craft self, I don’t even give it to the kids as an option. That’s my prerogative as the mommy and the teacher. Don’t judge me.
Which brings me to one more extraneous point: part of the beauty of Tapestry is that it encourages independent work in kids, even as it fosters the idea of Family Learning Together. They’re learning to take responsibility for their own assignments and how to keep up with their stuff. (Mothers of Boys, can I get an Amen?) I can give the boys choices about their projects (but only if I want to.) They can follow the paths that interest them, but we’re all still studying the same thing. For someone with twins, this is especially useful. It encourages me to let them be themselves, which is hard for me to remember when I want to keep life simple for myself.
And I think that’s what I love the best: Tapestry allows me to give my children so many great things, but still keep things simple. It’s Simply Complex, which is a lot like life, no?
(My apologies in advance for that attempt at being Yenta. We’re studying Jewish history next week and apparently it got under my skin.)
Next week, I’ll tackle what our schedule looks like and how we made Tapestry work in the House of Vitafam.
*When they say to start out with the Loom info that comes with the curriculum before you do any planning, they aren’t kidding. Reading the Loom opened my eyes to how it all went together, what a typical week would look like, and how to get started making it work for us. Do. Not. Skip. This.
*By a fluke, somebody gave me credit for a Tapestry purchase they made and I became an “affiliate.” Therefore, an affiliate link is contained in this post. I’m happy to lead others down this crazy path with me, apparently.
*Regular readers: If you read nothing else of this article, please read the last two paragraphs. Thanks!
Any of you who know me well can attest to the fact that I love shoes. I may go barefoot a lot, but I love me a good pair of shoes. I look for feminine, comfy, and just a hint of sass in my footwear.
Since our hearts became all tied up in Uganda, I find I hunt for more Purpose in the purchases I make. And that would naturally include SHOES.
I don’t even know where I ran across the Sseko Designs website, but I was instantly hooked. (And that was before I even perused the purty footwear!) Sseko offers work to Ugandan women who have completed secondary school and are waiting to start University. It’s often hard for these bright young women to find fair work in the current Ugandan society. Most of the money they earn at Sseko goes toward funding their further education. Sseko builds relationships with their girls and invests in their lives. They love to tell their stories, laugh with them, and encourage them. And they want these girls to get their education and then come help run the company.
I spent a lot of nap times reading the website and learning all about this not-just-for-profit business model. And then I spent a few months saving my pennies and dropping hints about these sandals to Andrew every chance I got. I was finally able to get my own pair a few weeks ago and I LOVE them. They are super comfy, sort of like going around barefoot. Or maybe like wearing flip-flops. But they feel more secure than flip-flops because I tie them on. And for a klutz like me (I DO have a history with falling down in floppy shoes), that extra security is important.
Not only that, but the straps are inter-changeable. And if you’re reading this from anywhere in the Bible Belt, you understand that we Southern women like our flip-flops to have interchangeable… thingies. I have no idea why. I just know it’s a big hit. Anyway, I bought the brown straps. And then I took down my bedroom curtains and made me some stripey green straps.
Of course, you don’t have to sew your own straps. Sseko sells several cute designs of strap, all made from fabrics found at market in Uganda. But I’m just sayin’, if you’ve got a fabric you love, even I was capable of making my own straps.
There’s all sorts of different ways to tie Ssekos, including one for those of you who fear cankles or drawing attention to your skinny legs. (Both objections I have heard raised.) Right now I’m loving the Classic, but I am trying to be open to change.
If you are a local reader, we’ll be at the Mt. Laurel spring festival this weekend selling HopeSuds. We’ll also be selling these sandals. Sseko will donate $5 for every pair that gets sold to our adoption fund. And if you’re not local but feel that your life would not be complete without a pair of African sandals with interchangeable straps, make sure you tell them on the website who sent ya, okay?
I know you people must think that all I do these days is talk about raising money. Please understand that several opportunities landed in our lap at the same time. We’re so pleased so many of you come to this little corner of the internet to read about us and we want to take very good care of the trust you place in us.
We want to give glory to the One who is providing for us in ways we could have never imagined. He is Good. And, obviously, He’s got a sense of humor. Not many people make their financial plans based on laundry detergent and strappy sandals. But here at Vitafam, with your help and by God’s grace, WE DO.
Awkward Disclosure Part: Nobody sent me anything free to review these. These are my own thoughts and opinions. Sseko will generously donate 5 dollars toward our adoption for every pair that people buy and mention our name, but the opinions I have of these sandals would be the same, regardless. My love for these shoes is unconditional and unfettered.
So are y’all sick of me writing about bread yet? Me, too. Which is why I made you some videos…
This first video will show you how to use your scales to weigh your ingredients for the 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The video is 6 minutes long, which really just means I talk too much. Also, if the fact that it takes me six minutes instead of five is the reason you don’t make this bread, then you probably need to settle down. Also, taking six minutes to mix a batch of dough that will last me about a week and a half to two weeks is a big improvement over 8 hours for a week’s worth of bread.
I was pleased to see that adding the extra 3 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten really did made the dough less wet and gooey. I’m also happy to report that after ten years of marriage, I still had to edit out about 5 seconds of footage of my posterior, so my husband still likes me. Hooray!
This next video is poorly shot, but it gives you a glimpse into how much time I actually spend making bread on days when the dough is already mixed. It also gives you a glimpse into how quickly my mornings disintegrate.
Let’s talk about BREAD, shall we? I’ve discussed the benefits of whole wheat, I’ve shown you how I make lots of loaves of bread at one time, now let’s talk about the current reality that is my life: I don’t have time for bread-making. I have all the tools to do it in big batches, what I don’t have is all the time. It really would only take me about four or five hours. But in Kid Time, that translates to 8 hours. You can imagine why.
And the problem is, bread-making isn’t really flexible. You can only let it rise so much, add so much flour, walk away from it for so long, before you have Mt. Saint Dough-saster on your hands and you’ve got to start all over.
This means that I’ve been secretly buying ONE loaf of whole wheat bread and rationing it out over a two week time frame. I hated that I was spending money on bread when I had everything I needed to make my own. I hated that I knew the store stuff wasn’t as good for us. And I hated that I couldn’t seem to make the time to make bread.
Then Megan at SortaCrunchy did a review of a book called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day. I was intrigued. I tried the recipe I found online. And then I dug in and did some real research and experimentation. And I am a believer.
The authors of the book devised recipes that don’t require kneading. You mix the flour, the water, the gluten, the yeast, and the salt in a big bucket with a lid. You let it rise, you throw it in the fridge. When you want to make bread, you pull out a handful of dough, shape it into a loaf, let it rise once more, bake it, and voila - BREAD. Head over here to watch videos and preview recipes.
Before I sounded off to all of you, though, I wanted to give the recipes a thorough test. I wanted to prove that this method really was more efficient and just as healthy. So I took my time working through the book. I had a friend (we shall call her The Bread Whisperer) test things with me.
Here’s what I love:
- We always have bread. I can get up in the morning, grab a hunk of dough, and set it out to rise. (Usually I take two pounds and stuff it in a loaf pan so I will end up with a traditional looking loaf. The book suggests artisan bread done on a baking stone. Which is pretty, but not really practical for my gang.) I throw it in to bake just before lunch and we can have hot bread and butter with honey every day of the week. I look like super mom and I spent a total of five minutes on it. Plus, the house smells fantastic.
- The dough will sit and wait for me. When we all got sick last week, nobody ate anything for days. When I came back to my dough, it had fermented a little, but that just meant we had sour dough bread for a week! I don’t even have to wash the bucket in between batches, I can just leave a bit of dough in there and I’ve basically made a starter for sour dough. (Obviously, if your dough sprouts something green or another groovy color of the rainbow, throw it out. But it should last for up to 15 days.)
- If I forget to set a loaf out to rise in the morning, I can have hot pitas out of the oven in half an hour. I kid you not. Today I started my pitas at 11:30 and by noon, my gang was making sandwiches with these puffy little beauties. It makes me happy.
- I’ve got instant gifts to take to neighbors in need. Make a pretty loaf and nobody minds that it’s actually good for them. Right?
Here’s what I learned:
- If you buy nothing else to start making your own bread, buy a good kitchen scale. Even if you’re going to use nothing but white flour, buy a kitchen scale. It will be the difference between dense blah loaves and happy perky loaves. It becomes even more important if you’re going to use even just some fresh ground flour. Fresh ground wheat flour measures completely different from white flour. Even the author of the book has noticed the difference and has suggested that scales be used when using fresh ground flour. The nice thing is, the book provides all the conversions, so you know how much your flour should weigh.
Now I have a system for weighing everything in one bucket without having to dirty multiple dishes. I dump it in the bucket on the scale, mix, and jam it in my fridge. The difference in rise, in texture, in everything, is obvious.
- The recipes all call for vital wheat gluten. It’s not that hard to find, people. Order some online if you need to. Don’t fight it. Just add it.
- The authors of the book originally wrote Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They took those recipes, added some whole wheat flour, cut the fat, and called it “Healthy Bread.” Here’s my issue with that: I don’t think removing fat makes something healthy. I think it makes it bland. I’m one of those healthy eaters who likes my healthy fats. I think good quality eggs, good quality butter, and cold-pressed coconut oil make the world go round. So if you’re going to try the brioche or some of the other recipes that call for eggs or butter, grab a copy of “Artisan Bread” and convert that recipe to whole wheat. Do NOT bother with the brioche recipe in “Healthy Bread.” It may be healthy, but it’s not brioche. Add another stick of butter and you’ll come closer to having brioche. I kid you not, my chef friend took one sniff of my brioche dough and said, “Add another stick or two of butter. At least.”
I never argue with a chef. They have really sharp knives.
As the Bread Whisperer, my chef friend, and I perfect making these recipes wheaty yet tasty, I’ll share our modifications with you. For now, if you’ve ever thought about making your own bread or grinding your own flour, I suggest you start with the methods in this book. Buy a grinder. Buy some wheat. Then don’t sweat learning all about kneading and the “window pane test.” Get you a bucket and make some bread. The point is not whether you know how to knead, the point is that you always have healthy bread on hand.
I think at this juncture, a video of how to measure things out quickly would be appropriate. I’ll try and put something together for you in a day or two. In the meantime, my apologies for all the verbage. It’s like Pandora’s Bread Box in my head. You people should never have gotten me started…
I’m in a bit of a “helpful” mood lately. I’m doling out advice left and right, like a cafeteria lady in the pudding line. I tweeted a picture of the kids’ lunch today and the subsequent requests for recipes got me thinking. I cook a lot. I get requests for recipes a lot. Almost all of “my” recipes are ones I gleaned from My Friend the Internet. I tweak them some, but I’m a rule follower by nature. (Nobody that knows me in real life chime in here.)
So I decided to put all of my favorite, tried and true recipes in one place. Not in a book, no, that would be too prosaic. I compiled them on the world wide interweb. And, because I love you all, really and truly, I’m sharing my list with you.
Before you go clicking away, there’s a few things you should know about how we eat. We don’t eat tons of chicken because we buy our chickens whole and I hate whole chickens, so we don’t eat them much. We buy our beef by the cow and live off of that for the year. I stretch things with beans. Some of these recipes I double just to feed our gang or to ensure left-overs. See the bottom of the document for all the substitutions I make to render these “Vitafam healthy.”
And, finally, I’m sort of a “one-dish wonder.” I’m not a sidedish hater, I’m just short on time. Which is why there are only three side dishes listed. My family is grateful for their bowl of whatever. If they want variety, they can learn to cook. What this means for you, though, is that most of these dinner recipes are filling on their own and don’t require complimentary side dishes.
On our family’s Christmas morning, we don’t just let the kids come screaming down the stairs. I was never allowed to do that growing up (matter of fact, usually it was my younger siblings who hauled me out of bed so we could all sit at the top of the steps and wait for Daddy to let us come downstairs). Instead, Andrew and I kicked the party off in the kids’ room.
Andrew read the story of creation from Genesis and we lit a candle in the dark room to show that God made the light.
Then Andrew talked about what happened when sin entered the world. We blew the candle out and sat, once again, in darkness. (All of these pictures were taken, rather intrusively, with a flash.)
It’s at this point that I’m going to stop and brag on Andrew a bit. He’s worked very hard this year to disciple our children and make sure that they know the gospel, inside and out. If you’re looking for a great resource to help your children grasp some of these concepts, check out The Gospel for Children. Andrew tweaked it here and there, but for the most part, it’s a straight-forward way to explain salvation, with a neat way to help kids remember things. I love to hear them all chanting the gospel at night before bed.
It warmed my heart when Andrew asked the boys a question on Christmas morning, they were able to answer him coherently. And not just with the pat answer of “Jesus” or “God.” They’re getting it, People. It’s such a cool thing to watch. (Alright, so I know saying “it’s cool” isn’t really poetic writing, but there just.aren’t.words.)
We read more of the Christmas story and then Andrew re-lit the candle to signify hope coming to earth when Jesus was born. He came and redeemed us, bringing with Him light and everlasting life. (And in the middle of all of this deep theology, there was the reality of baby wrestling to contend with.)
We sang a few songs and prayed before we ended our little mini-church service. Check out the boys, straining to read the words in the dark.
After a rousing version of “Silent Night,” Andrew told the children that just like God had sent us a gift in His Son, we had a gift for them, because we love our kids. “Mommy and Daddy’s gift is certainly nothing as important or special as God’s gift, but the love behind it is big,” he said.
We’ve all had a case of the sniffles and Andrew and I haven’t messed around about nipping this illness in the bud. We’re dosing the kids with echinacea and mullein, we’re putting oil in their ears, and we’re using “The Shooter.” It’s basically a big syringe with a rounded tip so that you fill it with salty water to cleanse the nasal passages. (Like the Neti Pot, but faster.)
I never said it was sexy. Just that it works.
The kids generally hate this thing. Willa doesn’t mind it, because it helps her breathe. The others think it’s a small instrument of torture. They resort to screaming and wrestling like we’re cutting their head off. So this time around, I got smart. I told Andrew, “We’re gonna make it worth their while and let them associate something GOOD with this thing.”
So I broke out the York Peppermint Patties.™ Nothing says “bribery” like high fructose corn syrup and chocolate.
I showed it to the children and informed them that if they could withhold the screaming, they would get their very own patty.
Ian managed absolute silence. Sam very bravely said, “Ahhhhhhh” at the appropriate time and only raised his voice a little. Adam screamed like a banshee. Ellen screamed at first, but we kept waving that chocolate in her face and she muscled through.
All day today, they discussed how it would be when we did “the shooter” again. Ellen even practiced standing over the sink a few times and saying “ahhhhh.”
“I say ‘ahhhh’ I get delly been.”
Yea, after the first time, we downgraded the prize to jelly beans.
And now, we’ve got it down to a science. Andrew holds the child over the sink with their head turned just right so the water flows in and out like it’s supposed to. I’m “the shooter.” Once I shoot the water up one side, I hand the child a tissue and run around to the other side for a second “shot.” Then I dole out another tissue and bestow the jelly beans.
At some point, Andrew got a good look at me and laughed. I looked down. I had two Kleenex shoved down the front of my shirt so I could grab them quickly after each shot. (Who knew being a girl meant I have a built-in pocket for life?) I had four jelly beans in one hand and a giant nasal syringe in the other. I rolled my eyes and said, “I get it done, don’t I?”
In the comments on yesterday’s post, Kristin left me a message that she’d bought Five-In-A-Row (and Before FIAR) upon my recommendation. I started one of my long-winded, only half-coherent emails in response to her and then realized that there were a few others of you who I lead astray regularly pay attention to my reviews that might benefit from some extra information about FIAR. Now that we’ve tried a year of Before Five In A Row and have finished Volume 1 of FIAR, I’ve got some experience under my belt with this curriculum and maybe a bit of wisdom for those of you just starting out. (She says, wearing her Expert Hat with the price tag still on it.)
1. If you have several children fairly close in age, pick one FIAR volume and do it all together. Kristin mentioned that she had a 3 year old and a 5 year old. It isn’t necessary to do BFIAR with the 3 year old and FIAR with the 5 year old at the same time. That involves, well, I’m just gonna say it, too much work. Also, the point of doing a curriculum like FIAR is so that you can snuggle with your kids and enjoy it together. Simply taper the lessons up for your older child if you choose BFIAR and simplify parts of the lesson for your younger child if you choose FIAR.
If you were to ask me, I’d probably suggest starting out with the books from BFIAR. These are certainly a bit more fun. Gauge your 5 year old’s interest and abilities and then push them a bit harder to learn stuff. The material is very flexible that way. Also, there’s nothing to say you can’t do BFIAR and then Vol. 1 of FIAR in the same year as your children mature a bit and you get the hang of the process.
2. PREVIEW the books. I’ve learned this the hard way. I blithely planned our weeks out using the book and my Google calendar. But I didn’t really read them until the first time I sat with the kids. I had a general idea of the subject matter, but some books made me cry. Some were just depressing. And some were just a little too artsy for me. I suspect, but I can’t prove it, that the author of this curriculum is big into The Study of Art. Lots of space in the book is devoted to art lessons. Which is great. But even though I’ve got a kid who is artistically inclined, he’s five. He can’t appreciate the light and shadows in a good watercolor. (That being said, file this away for those of you looking for a fun way to do art with your 2nd or 3rd grader. What a great way to study art appreciation together, with fun books and memorable illustrations! And no naked people!)
There were a few books that we didn’t spend a full week on just because reading them made me want to slit my wrists a little. We covered the tough subject matter, I’m not afraid of that. But I just didn’t think we needed to DWELL on some of the books.
The good news is, my kids haven’t complained at all. They’ve very cheerfully sat through every reading of every book. Which, I think, makes me want to honor their diligence even more by making sure they’ll like the books. So I’m picking and choosing a bit more carefully for volume 2.
3. Once you get the hang of the idea behind FIAR, don’t be afraid to come up with your own lessons. Or use one of your own favorite books. I think this sort of schooling works great for preschool and kindergarten grades because you can cover a whole lot of random “get to know the world around you” sort of stuff and yet the kids have a way to relate it back to a story that becomes familiar. And I get to pick and choose what we focus on each week. However, I don’t think that the author of the curriculum is the only one qualified to pick books for my kids to read. So I’m branching out. I’m getting brave.
And I’m blatantly stealing other people’s ideas. Ever checked out Homeschool Share? It’s a free website where other unit study and FIAR homeschoolers share their unit studies, lapbook ideas, and free printables for the FIAR books and other great kid books. So once you become familiar with FIAR and how it works, you can pick any book listed on the site and there are tons of suggestions for how to teach that book in a FIAR style to your kids. Even better, for mamas like me who wouldn’t know a lapbook if it bit us in the nose, some people have posted all their lapbook print-outs, so all I have to do is hit copy, paste, print. Voila! Arts and crafts!
Somebody hand me a glue stick, it’s gonna get all arty and edumacational up in here!
And if you survived this Acronym-ic Assault on your eyeballs, you deserve a cookie!
By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed FIAR for free, so go check out a better overview here.
Back in the early 90s, the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. My dad found them amusing, so we all got a healthy dose of “Dudley Do-Right” and “Boris and Natasha” for a few years. One of my favorite scenes was when Bullwinkle, a rather dim-witted moose, would try to do a magic trick and would start with the line “Nothin’ up my sleeve!”
This nonsense appealed to my warped sense of humor, as you can well imagine.
At any rate, I thought I’d start a little regular post of home remedies and “tricks” we’ve picked up here in all the living we’ve done at the House of Vitafam.
For my first trick, I’d like to tell you about something called Arnica. You can buy it in gel form, pill form, oil… the possibilities are endless. It’s a homeopathic remedy, but it actually WORKS. It reduces bruising and swelling like a champ. And with our gang, you can be certain we see lots of attempts to bruise and swell.
I buy the Arnica in a tube of gel. It’s nice and cool but doesn’t sting or burn when I rub it on a boo-boo. (I actually use it often for those many “fake boo-boos” that someone imagines to have gotten because it doesn’t do them any harm to rub on the skin.) If someone gets conked on the head and looks to get a nice goose-egg, I rub a bit of that on the bump and usually the goose-egg disappears.
People are always falling down the stairs at the house, myself included, and Arnica is our go-to remedy of choice for any injuries sustained while hurtling toward the ground. The other day, I dropped my mixing bowl from my bread mixer (which is huge and heavy) on my ankle. I rubbed a bit of Arnica on it and pretty soon, Andrew couldn’t even see the injury I was whining about. So I guess that’s actually a failing of the product. You can’t talk about battle wounds when no one can see them.
I keep a tube of Arnica in my purse, in the van, in the kitchen, and in the medicine cabinet. And it gets used in all four places. I also tend to buy an extra tube or two to hand out to friends and neighbors when their children get hurt while playing with my gang. (I swear we’re not violent, we’re just accident prone.) I’m convinced any mother of boys ought to have a tube in every corner of the house.
I can’t tell you exactly why it works, because this isn’t that kind of a blog, I can only tell you that it DOES work. According to wikipedia, it’s made from a part of the sunflower, so that’s a happy thought. Maybe next time someone falls down the stairs (i.e. tomorrow) I can tell my kids that not only are they getting a magic kiss from Mommy, but they’re getting a get-well kiss from a sunflower, too.
Or maybe I can just smear some Arnica on it, slap ‘em on the butt, and tell them to “shake it off” like I always do.
This is NOT a sponsored post. Nor am I a medical professional of any sort. So please do not ask me how to cure your boils. I’m just an experienced mom with an opinion. And very ungraceful children.
Everybody’s got their vices. My husband is a coffee snob. (His current fave is this brand, a great company to support with a terrific cause.) I, on the other hand, am a chocolate snob. The darker the chocolate, the more I like it. I keep a 70% chocolate bar open in the pantry at all times, ready and waiting for me when “mama needs a fix.”
So it should come as no surprise that when I read about a new product called “Choffy,” which is ground up chocolate beans, brewed as coffee, I had to try it. Ridiculous name or not, my cacao beans were calling me.
An open bag smells dark, earthy, and chocolatey. I’d crawl right in, but they don’t make ‘em in my size. My favorite way to brew it is in the French press. I add a drop of honey, just to thicken it, and drink it black. Me, who can’t handle coffee unless it’s in mocha latte form, can drink this black.
To me, choffy is what coffee is always supposed to have tasted like. The after taste is chocolatey instead of bitter. It’s dark, and tastes a bit like brewed sticks at first sip. (This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because then the chocolate hits you and you don’t care that it’s “woody.”) No, it doesn’t have caffeine, but I can’t handle caffeine anyway. (I know, it’s my ONE fault.) It does give me a nice little lift, though, (sort of like my chocolate bar in the pantry) and I find my mornings are much happier if I’ve got a cup of choffy in my hand.
If you like milk chocolate, stay away. Choffy is really only for dark and bittersweet chocolate enthusiasts, I think. It costs about what we spend on Andrew’s fancy espresso, but I go through it faster because I have to brew two cups to fill my mug. So I ration it. Closely. And if you come to my house and I actually offer to let you try my choffy, then consider yourself favored among men. Even my kids know that Mommy doesn’t share chocolate easily.
And the odds of me sharing my morning cup of choffy? Pffffh. Fuhgeddaboutit.
I tried all the types of Choffy but the one we currently use, and the one I reviewed, is Ivory Coast. The Ecuadorian is lovely, but they are currently out of stock.
And nobody paid me to write this post, but, ahem, THEY SHOULD.
