12.20.2009

DIY Peppermint Mocha

'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.' But since 'I can sing, I just choose not to sing. Especially in front of other people,'* I'm giving away these at the office instead:

It's no secret that I love me some clear glass ornament projects, and I thought they'd make festive packaging for the couple servings of peppermint mocha mix I'm trying to contain. I used 67mm (2.63 in.) bulbs and filled them up about half way with 6 tbsp of mix. I messed around til I came up with a pretty yummy recipe:
  • 1 cup of hot cocoa
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup of instant coffee
  • 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract
  • adjust coffee and extract amount according to your taste, mix well in food processor
To minimize the powder leakage, I inserted a mini marshmallow under each cap:
To add a little color inside the glass bulbs, I broke off peppermint sticks to insert into each one. Many sticks were sacrificed as I needed them to be the exact height where they remain standing without impeding on the marshmallow cap action, which had a very low tolerance. *Note: soft mints break nicely, regular candy canes do not.

With matching ribbons and instruction tag (reads 'Add 3 tbsp or more of mocha mix to a cup of hot water or milk and enjoy!'), these are ready to go!
The boxed edition went into ultra limited production. As da hubs pointed out, not everyone appreciate nice balls. Note: the mix will 'dirty' the peppermint stick in transport, but with a few shakes/taps, it cleans up quite nicely!

Happy Holidays everybody!

*My fav Xmas movie