keeping note

I love discovering new places. Cypress, Gloria and I were headed to Anaheim for my birthday when we decided to make a Starbucks stop. As I walked in to my dismay, they had a dismal display of pastries. Ugh, I hate when there’s no lemon loaf. So, after walking out disappointed we wondered into Chuao Chocolate Cafe.

Things happen for a reason.

Chuao Chocolate Cafe, located in La Jolla’s UTC shopping center, is filled with delicious chocolate treats and the people that work there are affable and knowledgeable.

A woman named Summer approached us and answered all our questions about their gourmet chocolates and pastries with NO SALES PRESSURE. I love that. I’ve noticed people tend not to go into high end places because of the pressure they feel to buy to prove their right to be in the store. This store felt very welcoming.

Summer actually spent time with us and even explained about events CCC holds. They have a chocolate tasting event, which is 10 dollars a person, also if you attend this event you get a discount on your purchases for the day. Gloria, Cypress and I all agreed that it’s an event we’re going to look out for. She told us it’s held once a month and to call for any date changes.

The only thing that’s difficult about the store is trying to set a spending limit for yourself. I wanted to buy and taste EVERYTHING! They’re chocolate is so smooth and delicious.

Gloria and I ended up buying some brownies. We both agreed that we’ve never tasted a more delicious brownie. It had cinnamon and chili powder. It gave a slight warmth through out your mouth, it was chocolate-y but not so sweet that you couldn’t appreciate the coco.

Gloria also bought a chocolate bar and we discussed how yes, it cost more than the dollar chocolate bars at the grocery store, but the quality really was different because you don’t just taste sugar. This chocolate bar had depth. We’re rather have one of these a week than 8 a week of the dollar bars of chocolate.

This cafe doesn’t only sell chocolate, cypress got a delicious dulce de leche pastry and they sell gelato!

We loved our visit there and now we’re planning to treat ourselves there…often

Oh and a little birdy told me that a Food network show stopped by to tape there so keep your eyes open, we’re not surprised, Chuao is destined for big things.

CLICK HERE to visit their website and enjoy our pictures of our visit below!

The front!

Gelato!

Wonderful chocolate presentation!

Interesting design. (Wonderful small touches!)

Cypress gobbled the chocolate up!

Delicious!

So sad, my brownie is almost gone!

Having recently partnered with AT&T, Starbucks is doing something generous and long overdue.

Free WiFi (with a small catch).

If you buy a Starbucks Card (or already happen to have one since they are the universal gift of every holiday where you have to give a lot of things to a lot of meaningless people), you can register it online. Once you register you are part of the “Starbucks Rewards Program” where you get some perks.

They send you a free drink. (Correction: Not send you the drink. Send you a coupon for a free drink.) You get free modifiers to your drink whenever you use the card. You don’t have to pay extra for things like soy milk and fancy flavors. The best part is that you get free AT&T wireless internet in every Starbucks location, which means anywhere you happen to be.

I know I’m taking them up on the offer. Thanks, AT&T, for knocking some sense into Starbucks. Maybe you aren’t so horrible after all.

Yesterday I saw a commercial for a “hand stirred” fruit milkshake smoothie of some sort new at Wendy’s. As someone who’s worked at Starbucks (albeit happily) for much longer than intended, I’ve seen plenty of the “hand shaken” or “hand stirred” nonsense. Why do advertisers see it as such a great selling point at mass produced locations?

First off, it’s Wendy’s for goodness sake. While the company probably encourages excellence and performance, it’s still fast food. It’s still food that you can drive up to a window and receive in less than three minutes. It’s food that has been demographically selected and manufactured for the entire nation to enjoy at every Wendy’s location on every street corner from the ghetto to the suburbs. You aren’t getting personal or gourmet.

Second off, the people making these things don’t have the expertise and aren’t given enough money to care about shaking, stirring, or whatever is required of them. When it comes down to it, time is everything. The faster you get your food, the happier you are. Managers know it. Employees know it.

Third, and most relevantly, having worked in semi “fast food” and been given instructions on “hand shaken” beverages, I know that it means squat. Starbucks is higher quality than most places out there, but we still take quite a liberty with those personal touches to your drinks. If we ring 30 transactions a half an hour on an average day, that’s at the very least 30 drinks, more realistically beyond double that. Yes, your drink will be made well, I can promise you that, but those fancy personal touches that are advertised aren’t always part of the process.

Now step it down to real fast food like Wendy’s. Don’t even think that they are going to take the time out to do anything personal to your beverage, except spit in it if you piss them off.

Here’s the long and short of it: Unless you are paying top dollar from a restaurant or professional, “hand shaken” means nothing.

Forget your breakfast smoothie, grab yourself Carl’s Jr’s newest indulgence, Cap’n Crunch Shakes & Malts.

It’s breakfast cereal in a blender and for the first few sips, it’s the most heavenly drink an eight-year old (or eight-year old at heart) could ever fathom. Unfortunately, there is a reason why milk is only poured into the bowl immediately before consumption.

Good news first: After ordering the malt and enjoying french fries on the side, I am a big fan of breakfast cereal milkshakes. The sweet cereal went quite nicely with the malt. I’m pretty sure the concoction is just a vanilla malt/shake with Captain Crunch blended in. Simple, yet delicious.

Bad news: You have to drink it quickly. Within 10 minutes the cereal in the malt had gone soggy. I guess the Cap’n isn’t so successful at battling off the evil “soggies” when up against a thicker dairy. The malt became just plain vanilla, occasionally sucking up a mushy chunk. It was too gross to finish.

Overall, I really love this idea of breakfast cereal milkshakes (if you can drink them fast). The fact that you can get Cap’n Crunch, the world’s most tasty breakfast cereal, at a drive through window is downright genius. It’s really yummy and I would definitely recommend giving it a try.