Serious Eats
In Design: Birch Branch Mugs
I’ve recently had the pleasure of spending some time in the production kitchen of Brooklyn-based chocolatier CocoaVino, observing firsthand the care and attention given to every detail by proprietors Alisha Lumea and Avril Pendergast-Fischer. In addition to creating their unique and delectable chocolate bonbons and confections—all handcrafted to exacting standards—the duo also designs the company’s graphics and packaging, right down to the special box inserts that hold the bonbons snuggly in place.
This year, they’ve taken things even further, designing and making a small lot of beautiful cups for sipping their new hot chocolate mix. Individually sculpted by Ms. Pendergast-Fischer to resemble sections of white birch branch (complementing the birch-bark motif on the hot chocolate box), the charming shot-sized ceramic cups are as well-suited to serving rich hot chocolate as they are to any other manor of delicious winter tipple. And they’d make lovely holiday table accents, too—holding sprigs of holly or candy sticks.
The mugs are available as part of a gift set, which also includes half a pound of CocoaVino’s new cardamom-spiked Hyggelig Hot Chocolate, at cocoavino.com.
About the author: Amanda Clarke is a recovering restaurant pastry chef with a background in architecture. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes, tests, and develops recipes and works on freelance food-styling gigs between walkings and feedings of her two dogs and husband.