Mint-Chocolate Coffee Spoons

 by: LeAnn R. Ralph

A quick and easy way to enjoy mint-chocolate coffee!

My sister-in-law makes these, and they sell them at school events to raise money for the parochial school where her son is enrolled. She says they "sell like hotcakes." Suggested price: 2 for $1. If you want to make gifts for people for birthdays or Christmas or other special occasions, or as party favors, the coffee spoons work well for that too.

• Ordinary plastic spoons

• Bars of Hershey's chocolate

• Hard peppermint candy or, for something different, try dinner mints

• Saran Wrap or other plastic wrap

• Short pieces of ribbon

Melt the chocolate. Dip the plastic spoons in the chocolate. Lay spoons on wax paper. Before the chocolate sets, place a mint in the middle of the spoon.

When the chocolate has cooled and hardened, cover spoon with Saran Wrap (or other plastic wrap). Tie a ribbon around handle of the spoon to hold the plastic wrap in place. (Use colored plastic wrap and coordinating colors for the ribbon, if you prefer.)

To use: pour a cup of hot coffee, take the plastic wrap off the spoon, stick the spoon in the coffee and stir. And TA-DA! -- mint chocolate coffee.

Note: You might want to add some chocolate chips to the melted chocolate to give it a somewhat firmer consistency when it cools off. You may also want to experiment a bit with dipping the spoons a couple of times.

Another note: you could also experiment with other flavors. What about vanilla almond bark and butterscotch candy? Or chocolate and butterscotch? Or chocolate and raspberry candy? You get the picture, I'm sure.