Trust Me On This One

If you ever find yourself in Olympia, Washington, I would recommend staying there until you have gone to the Mud Bay Coffee Company. Yes, I can already hear what you’re saying… “umm, Miranda? You don’t drink coffee. What business do you have recommending a coffee shop?” Well you’re right, I don’t drink coffee. But Mud Bay has something that I do drink…CHOCOLATE.



The fine people at Trop’s Gourmet Chocolates sell their delicious real (as in, no separated cocoa and cocoa butter for them) chocolate to Mud Bay for use in hot chocolate, mochas, and whatever other coffee based drinks include chocolate. But that is not the only thing you’re going to Mud Bay for…you’re going there for the brownies. And believe me, if you’re going to buy one brownie, you might as well buy them all. If you do not, then you’ll spend the rest of your day in a panic that you may never get to eat another one of those delicious brownies as long as you live. Then you’ll obsess about the fact that other (less-deserving) people are buying up your precious brownies perhaps without even appreciating what they’re about to bite into! Are the brownies still there? What if you go back and they’re gone? How will you know unless you BUY THEM ALL?! So trust me, just buy them.

After you’ve devoured the brownies, you might wonder how you can get your hands on a bottle of this stuff. I can't help you with that one. The one in the picture was a promotional item that I got from my brother-in-law (see below). However, if Mud Bay has decided to sell the chocolate separate from their concoctions, obviously I would recommend taking a bottle (or six) home. What did I do with my chocolate? Well, what I didn’t eat out of the bottle with a spoon I shared with my husband in the form of hot chocolate, ice cream topping, and graham cracker dip….but mostly I just ate it with a spoon.

As for the coffee, I’m sure that is fantastic also. How can I be so sure? Well, my brother-in-law is a roaster there and I’m guessing he does a pretty bang up job of it. He even knows how to roast coffee beans in the comfort of his own home…while his dad runs the shop vac to clean up the chaff.