Cookerati

• Charleston Cookie Company
• Charleston Cookie Company makes the best gourmet cookies I have ever tasted – hands down.  I had the gold tin of cookies – which contained 3 cookies of each of 4 different types of cookies.  They were moist and chewy and so delicious with a really good  flavor.  These would make a great hostess gift or something to send to a friend to let them know you are thinking of them.

Charleston Cookie Company, which hand bakes more than 30 varieties of cookies and brownies for customers nationwide, has introduced three new varieties of cookies and six new brownies and bars to its already popular lines of customized, specialty products for holiday sales.

Judith Moore the owner of the Charleston Cookie Company spent many months on research in order to perfect her cookies.  She uses a refigerated dough with only the best ingredients, such as really fresh eggs, vanilla, real butter, pecan meal, etc.  She wanted her cookies to be more meaty and less sugar. I really think she came up with the perfect cookie taste.

Besides the regular offering of 30 varieties of cookies and brownies, she has new products for this Holiday season. Complete cookie and brownies lines are available for next-day delivery at www.charlestoncookie.com.  For more information, call (800) 606- 9001.

New products for 2008 include:

• Macaroons – Rich, dense coconut macaroon cookies dipped in chocolate – available as full size cookies or as minis.
• White Chocolate Apricot – Mini cookies featuring the complimentary tastes of rich white chocolate and the sweet, fruity flavor of apricots.
• Cream Cheese Brownies – Deep, dark chocolate brownies contrasted in color and flavor by streaks of rich cream cheese.
• Blondie Brownies – These brownies get their name from their tan color and feature a combination of pecans, coconut, brown sugar and butter.
• Hummingbird Bars – These treats recently won “Best Dessert” at the 2008 Atlanta Gourmet Market and include a blend of the sweet and salty with sugar, honey and cream combined with seven kinds of nuts and seeds.
• Chocolate Truffles/Pops – These rich, dark chocolate-dipped truffles can be enjoyed as individual round treats or, with the addition of a stick, as a pop.
• Peanut Butter Bars – Another incarnation of the Blondie Brownie, Peanut Butter Bars include creamy peanut butter and chucks of peanuts.

Executive Pastry Chef Judy Papadimitriou created each of the new treats for 2008 and said the new product lines are derived from her own favorites, including the macaroons, input from the Charleston Cookie Company team and even requests from customers.

In addition to individual orders from consumers nationwide, Charleston Cookie Company specializes in providing the perfect Charleston gift for corporate accounts.  The company offers three baskets that include local teas, coffees and, of course, cookies.  Each basket includes Charleston Cookie Company’s signature Chocolate Chip Pecan cookies.  In addition, baskets can be tailored to include an assortment of only cookies.

• Intentional Chocolate

Intentional Chocolate is chocolate from Hawaiin Vintage Chocolate and other items infused with good intentions by the blessings of Buddhist monks in Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison Wisconsin. The monks treat a machine to drive good intentions and spiratual into it and then the machine is used to make chocolate and infusing the chocolate with good intentions.  There was a double blind study done to test and see if eating the chocolate would really have an effect. 

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that was published in the scientific peer-reviewed journal, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing (October 2007) it was found that one ounce of Intentional Chocolate™ per day for three days increased subjects’ well-being, vigor and energy by an average of 67 percent and, in some cases, up to 1,000 percent, when compared to a control group.
The study showed that those who Intentional Chocolate™ is proven to have beneftis of decreased stress, increased energy, greater calmness, and enhanced focus.ate intentional chocolate received the following benefits:

• Decreased stress
• Increased energy
• Less fatigue
• Greater calmness
• Enhanced focus
• Improved general well-being

Dr. Dean Radin, PhD, Senior Scientist at The Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of Entangled Minds and The Conscious Universe explains:
"The mood-enhancing effects of the focused intentions embedded in Intentional Chocolate were successfully demonstrated in a statistically significant, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment, and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal (Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing).

I have tried the intentional chocolate, but I haven’t come to any conclusions – other than I should keep trying.  My grandmother believed in things that were blessed and so do many religions and churches.  I believe in blessings too.  I also think, that when you give something that says this is for you and your inner self, that the receiver understand that you are really thinking of them and not just handing out a gift. 

This chocolate is better than average, it’s really quality chocolate.  The truffles are coated in cocoa and although I didn’t want to share I did (maybe it was those good intentions working on me).  When my husband was sitting there cursing out my daughter’s computer because the hard drive died, and she was leaving to go back to college the next day, I popped on in his mouth, which did help to alleviate the foul air.  I usually tell him he needs his aura cleaned when he is upset like that – maybe the chocolate helps.  The hot cocoa was thick and delicious.  One warning though, you need your milk or water to be boiling or almost there to melt the chocolate and combine.  That’s because this is really cocoa, and real chocolate, not the imitation stuff.  The pistoles are a fine pop in your mouth bite of chocolate and portable too. 

New Holiday Gift Boxes

For the upcoming holiday season, Intentional Chocolate™ is pleased to introduce five new holiday gift boxes, which allow the purchaser to include a personalized intention and wish to those they love. Each of the new gift boxes—Gratitude, Lasting Peace, Love for All Beings, Celebrate the Wonder and Practice the Presence —are available at www.IntentionalChocolate.com, retail for $48.50 – $100, and include a combination of the following products depending upon what you order:

• 7oz Dark or Milk Intentional Chocolate Pistoles
• 9 Piece Love Truffles
• Chocolate Covered Goji Berries
• Intentional Hot Chocolate 14 oz or 30 oz
• The Little Scroll of Intention
• 100% Organic Cotton Peace to all beings T-shirt and Hat
• Intentional Chocolate Mug
• Intentional Chocolate Beeswax Candle
• Customized and hand written greeting card