Tea collection truffles from Sôcôla in San Francisco ("made with local ingredients, including Straus Creamery butter and cream. Sôcôla uses only the best ingredients to make your palate sing and your soul feel heavenly.) in Jasmine, Earl Grey, Matcha Green, Masala Chai. Four for $12, or a dozen for $32. (And if you're a coffee person, or like me you go both ways, check out the Vietnamese Espresso Chocolate Truffles.)
While growing up in the hot and steamy South, I loved autumn and its coolness, and you’d think that after Seattle’s oven-like temperatures and dangerously smoky skies this summer, I’d be looking forward to autumn. Wrong. I’m already counting the weeks till spring and wishing I could move to Buenos Aires for the next six months and enjoy spring and summer all over again. Perhaps I’ve changed (emotionally?) but fall feels sad this year; I reckon it’ll be dark, sodden, the beginning of The End — the interminable winter months.
This year I’m going to avoid sentimentality, Japanese death poems, lethargic piano music and drama (I won’t be stoking my self-pity). I’ll tackle my negative autumn (and winter) moods with fun things…
Hungry this morning? From Fresh, limited edition Sugar Chocolate Hydrating Lip Balm: "A rich, moisturizing lip treatment that smoothes and comforts on contact while delivering a velvety sheen and addictive flavor inspired by chocolate fudge." $18 for 6g.
Reading the press announcement for Nest Cocoa Woods, I had one of those “time flies” moments. Cocoa Woods has been released to coincide with founder Laura Slatkin’s 25 year-anniversary in the fragrance industry and the 10-year anniversary of the Nest fragrance line. Yes indeed: Slatkin and her husband Harry launched Slatkin & Co. home fragrances in the early 90s, and Nest’s candles and other home and body items made their debut in 2008. I just can’t believe it’s been that long!
Nest’s “fine fragrance” collection started up in 2012 and currently includes twelve scents, by my count. Cocoa Woods, the newest addition, is described as a “woody-gourmand scent” with notes of cocoa, sequoia wood, white sandalwood, tiaré blossom and ginger. Like the rest of the line, it has a beautiful bottle with decoration inspired by eighteenth-century floral illustration and découpage. And it’s really the packaging that keeps me coming back to this line, because I’m still looking for a Nest fragrance to love…
A lemming for chocoholics, courtesy of reader Jalapeno: the Haut-Chocolat Calendar of Advent from Vosges. "Prepare for daily enchantment as you count down the days of December in our limited-edition advent box adorned with golden centaurs, unicorns and rabbit kings. Drawers slide open to reveal a morsel of haut-chocolat: caramels, mini exotic chocolate bars, and event happy hedgehogs and magical gnomes! Flip each drawer before replacing it to reveal a hidden design on Christmas Eve." $140.