Mocha Delights | featuring The Roaster's Pack & Detour Coffee Roasters

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to team up with The Roaster's Pack for their September Issue. The Roaster's Pack is a Canadian based coffee subscription that features—you guessed it—only Canadian coffee roasters. Every month they mail out out a carefully curated box of three different coffees from three different domestic roasters. For those of you tuning in from your The Roaster's Pack subscription, hello, and welcome! 

Here's what went down: Last month The Roaster's Pack sent over a super special sneak preview of one of the coffee's for their September Issue. It was Kayon Mount Ethiopia from Detour Coffee—a roaster out of Burlington, Ontario. I was tasked with creating something delicious to showcase this Shikaso Guji, so I spent lots of time smelling, cupping, brewing, and tasting their lovely roasted-for-filter coffee. The recipe pictured here, and included in September's The Roaster's Pack subscription box, was inspired by this coffee's creamy, apricot and rich english breakfast tea-like flavor profile. 

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My three goals in developing this recipe were to 1) use the Kayon Mount Ethiopia as an ingredient, 2) play on the stone fruit tasting notes in the coffee, and 3) Keep it simple. Enter these INSANELY delicious Mocha Delights. They're easy to make, and knock your socks off tasty. Like, OMG! 

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Mocha Delights

recipe makes roughly 30

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
• 1 cup Whole Dried Apricots
• ½ cup Tahini
• 4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
• 2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• ⅛ tsp Fine Sea Salt
• 225 g or 1 package of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
•  1 ½ Tbsp finely ground Kayon Mount Ethiopia Coffee

Method:

1. Place coconut and apricots in food processor. Blend on high until bits are uniform in size. Add salt, tahini, vanilla, and continue to process. Once fully mixed, pour in maple syrup and pulse to combine. 
2. Using your hands, roll apricot and coconut mixture into small balls and place evenly on parchment lined baking sheet. Place sheet in the fridge.
3. While balls are cooling, use double boiler to gently melt chocolate chips—stirring occasionally. 
4. Once melted, turn off heat, and mix coffee grounds into the chocolate. 
5. Dip balls—one by one—into melted chocolate and coffee mixture, making sure to coat all sides. Once coated, return to parchment lined sheet. 
6. After all are dipped, refrigerate to harden for at least 20 minutes. 
7. Remove from baking sheet and store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
8. Enjoy Mocha Delights with a cup of Kayon Mount Ethiopia from Detour Coffee Roasters!

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If you have any reservations about using dried apricots—like I did—don't! Even though the apricots are a primary ingredient in this recipe, the flavor of the dried fruit isn't particularly dominant. Together with the coconut, tahini, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt, the center of these treats is almost like a healthy toffee—just way less sweet, and way better for you!

You may or may not have noticed that the dried apricots I am using are a dark brown color. This is because they are unsulfured. Sulfur dioxide is a preservative often added to apricots and other dried fruit to keep their bright colors intact. Though the FDA deems sulfur dioxide safe to ingest, some people have sensitivities to it. When it comes to food, I'm in the camp of less is more, and would rather opt out of unnecessary added ingredients when given the choice. 

In relationship to coffee, Mocha can have four different meanings. The first being the combination of coffee and chocolate—as pictured here. Secondly, Mocha is a port city in Yemen, which was once one of the most important marketplaces for trading coffee (from the 15th thru the early 18th century). There is also a plant variety of the Coffea arabica called Mocha, which is—not surprisingly—grown in Yemen. And, if you go to the cafe, you can order an espresso, chocolate syrup and steamed milk, otherwise known as a mocha or mocha latte.