Versatile Chocolate Liquor Cups

June is the most common month for weddings in the USA.  Chocolate is making an appearance in weddings around the world.  I thought this would be a great time to reveal a special product from our friends at Astor Chocolate to you all not only for weddings but for other special events you might be considering.  We've looked at other chocolate products that they sell as edible containers before but today your Chocolate Priestess wants to offer her opinion of their Chocolate Liqueur Cups and ideas for how versatile they can actually be.

There are a dozen of these cups partially encased in gold foil wrappers on the bottom in each box.  I found the foil very useful for serving them because it gave a way for my guests to hold them and nibble on them and eat/drink from them without getting chocolate on their fingers.  These are made with semi-sweet chocolate and no artificial ingredients but they qualify as PARVE if that is important to your celebrations this summer, fall or during the upcoming winter.  Each one has about 28 calories, 1.1g saturated fat, and 2.4g of sugars.  While the serving size is seven cups I can't imagine anyone needing or wanting that many because these pack a big chocolate buzz and if you use them with liqueurs then another type of punch as well.

There is no reason why you need to limit these to alcohol however.  We didn't because frankly I wanted to serve these during a get together where alcohol wasn't appropriate and I wanted to just offer my guests a little treat.  I came up with a plan that I wasn't sure would work but honestly didn't see why it wouldn't.  On hand I had a pint of orange sherbet, these cups, and some chocolate jimmies or sprinkles.  I hoped I could find a way to put the sherbet in the cups and then I'd just use the sprinkles for decoration.   It turned out that letting the sherbet set for a few minutes made it more malleable and easy to put into the cups using a regular teaspoon.  I filled them full and then sprinkled them thoroughly. Then placed them back in the freezer until my guests were ready.  In total it only took about 20 minutes to get everything out, the cups filled and them back in the freezer.

While these cups are made to withstand alcohol they held up well in the freezer and in fact held the coolness so the frozen treat was able to remain on our table for a half an hour before they started to melt again.  This might not be what Astor intended these Chocolate Liqueur Cups to be used for my all of my guests loved the combination of the darker chocolate with the orange sherbet and commented on how handy they were to eat and how pretty they looked.  So think outside the box and don't let the title of something dictate how you use it if you are confident in your skills to experiment.  Even minor ideas can have a big impact on your guests and so many things taste great with chocolate that you really must give it a try.

Sisters and Brothers, may you, too, take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.