Cup of hot Chocolate (Esben Emborg)
There are few things as great as the taste of chocolate. It's sweet, delicious, and for many people, there's never enough of it. But while it isn't practical or healthy to spend whole days gorging on the sweet stuff, we can do the next best thing: fill the home with the delicious fragrance of chocolate. Here are a few ideas to keep you constantly enveloped in a cocoa cocoon.
Natural and Artificial Smells
Natural or artificial, store-bought or home-made, there are plenty of great air fresheners to fill your home with chocolate.
1. The best way to fill a house with a chocolaty aroma, of course, is to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies or brownies. Baking a rich chocolate cake will also do the job. If you are baking a batch of brownies or cookies because this article is making you crave chocolate, please post photos of your culinary adventure on Hometalk.com, or tell us your best recipe. We can smell the chocolate already.
2. If you aren't the baking sort, or want a smell that'll last longer than an afternoon, try a chocolate-scented room spray. The Demeter Fragrance Library, makers of ridiculously specific and realistic scents, offers "Atmosphere Sprays" in chocolately Brownie, Chococat, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Chocolate Mint, Devil's Food and Tiramisu scents.
3. Make your own chocolate air freshener by mixing a few drops of chocolate essential oil, a couple of teaspoons of alcohol and a cup of water in a spray bottle. This is an option for people who choose not to use synthetic fragrances in their homes.
4. Add a little chocolate essential oil to a container of potpourri for a chocolate-and-spice scent mix. You can make your own potpourri by mixing cinnamon sticks, cloves, pine cones, pine needles and wood chips. Tipnut suggests "fermenting" your DIY potpourri in a jar for 6 weeks before uncapping it, for optimal scent power. Our experience with essential oils is that their scent dissipates quickly when exposed to air, so we recommend adding the chocolate essential oil right before you uncork your potpourri.
5. Burn a chocolate-scented candle. Natural soy candles made with non-toxic ingredients are actually pretty plentiful. We found handmade "Brownie Fudge" soy candles on Etsy (Krazy Candle Lady) and Chocolate soy wax candles from Sedona Aromatherapie. If conventional paraffin candles and synthetic fragrances don't bother you, Yankee Candle offers jarred candles in Chocolate Truffle scent.
Chocolate-scented Plants for Your Garden
1. Chocolate mint (Mentha piperita) is an easy-to-grow cultivar of Peppermint that will thrive outdoors. The leaves really do smell like a Thin Mint, and you can dry them and add them to your tea leaves for a great-tasting drink.
2. Chocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus) isn't edible, but this dark-hued flower is a great perennial that emits a chocolaty scent.
3. Chocolate daisy (Berlandiera lyrata) is a cousin to the common garden daisy, but this plant replaces the daisy's floral notes with a powerful scent of sweet cocoa.
4. Chocolate vine (Akebia quinata), a native to East Asia, is a deciduous creeping vine that produces chocolate-scented flowers.
Adam Verwymeren is a Networx - http://www.networx.com - writer. Get home & garden ideas like this - http://www.networx.com/article/make-your-home-smell-like-chocolate - on Networx.com.