Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans Get You Zipping Along But There Are Consequences to Eating Too Many

Where does coffee come from? That sort of question is right up there with why is the sky blue? And who put the salt in the ocean? You know the answers but who cares? Really. It doesn't make any difference in our normal day-to-day lives, if you're like me, a Sacramento short sale agent focused on closing short sales. Because if you're a person who needs caffeine, you're gonna drink it anyway. Unless you're addicted to Starbucks, which for some reason is often the example used as a way to justify spending more money -- why, this new expensive techno gizmo doesn't cost anymore over a year's time than what you spend per day at Starbucks!

Although, I rarely go to Starbucks unless it's to spend a gift card. However, some coffees are better than Starbucks. And, if you really like coffee, you can get a kick without drinking it. Did you know that? If you don't have time for a cup of coffee in the morning, you can gobble down a handful of chocolate-covered coffee beans and be zipping along in no time at all. But don't eat too many of them. Six chocolate-covered beans are equivalent to a cup of strong coffee. If you eat an entire bag, you might get sick.

I also discovered that some cherries (those little red things -- inside of which are your coffee beans, normally a pair of beans per cherry) contain only one bean. Those beans are peaberries. They are fruity and sweet. You can make coffee from peaberries, and it's different because it's fruity. Only 2 to 4% of all coffee bean trees produce peaberries. We picked one cherry and guess what? It contained a peaberry!

Kona, Hawaii, is famous for coffee. Seemed like a good thing to do on vacation, tour a coffee farm. This one has been in business since 1850, the Greenwell Farms. Can't sit at a pretend resort forever or your brain will rot. Greenwell Farms is located about 1500 feet above sea level in the coffee belt. It gets a minimum of 300 days of sunshine, bright sunlight early morning with cool breezes, followed by warmth and a late afternoon misting of rain. Perfect climate for great coffee. Greenwell buys cherries from other farms but also grows, hand picks, processes and roasts its own coffee on location.

This farm is run by a fourth-generation Greenwell dude. It features a bunch of different types of avocados. They never pick them. They wait for the avocados to ripen and fall to the ground before they are bagged and given away to customers. Along with other types of fruit such as papayas and apple bananas. There is also the farm dog. Her name is Lola. That's the nickname my dad used to call me when I was a kid. Guess it was because I was so darned cute when my mother dressed me up like Shirley Temple. I got whatever I wanted. The lasted all of 6 months.

Good movie if you've never seen it -- those Damn Yankees. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets . . .

I hope you enjoy the photos! Greenwall Farms, by Elizabeth Weintraub