So, it’s the week after Valentine’s Day in Ann Arbor and you’re watching big Charlie Brown snowflakes fall outside and thinking of heading out to see who has chocolate heart boxes on clearance. At least that’s what I’M thinking….

I’m thinking it while warming my hands on a mugful of one our great local indulgences: Sweet Gem’s Spiced Hot Chocolate (from the confectionary tucked away in the corner of Morgan & York on Packard). I bought a cute tin ($10) of it in fall and am now down to the last of the 8 ounces. Pretty good self-control, I’d say, since it’s a perfectly addictive blend of 70% dark chocolate powder, cocoa powder, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, cardamom, and cumin. MMMmmm. It’s not the only Mexican-inspired hot chocolate in town, but it’s one of the few I know that you can buy powdered as opposed to by the cupful.

If I do venture out this aft to shop, maybe I’ll include a stop at Arbor Farms or Busch’s or 10,000 Villages, all of which offer decent coffee w/ real cream free to sip while you shop. I’ll need that warmup after cleaning 2 inches of snow off the car.

Enough groaning and moaning! I actually like snow, and I like believing it may possibly mean global warming isn’t as bad as we feared…. But it is mid-February in Michigan, and we have to summon some strength to get thru several more cold dark weeks before the first forsythia bust into bloom.

I offered some other winter indulgence ideas in the January Observer’s “Baker’s Dozen” article: http://arborweb.com/articles/the_baker_s_dozen_full_article.html

What do you have to add??