Best chocolate snack EVER

I know: Yet another chocolate post. But I'm a firm believer in you can never have too much virtual chocolate. And this chocolate snack is simply too good not to share. (How good? Let me just say, I had originally planned on calling this post "Like crack, only chocolate.")

First, a little background: As many of you know, when not writing about truth, justice, and the American way -- and, okay, football, underwear, sex, cats, and pop culture -- I am a mild-mannered small business and technology reporter. And way back in December I wrote an article on inexpensive yet highly effective strategies small businesses were using to attract new customers (as well as repeat customers).

One of the businesses I wrote about, Koa Coffee Plantation, which is located in Hawaii, sent me some samples of their delicious coffees and chocolates as a little thank-you -- or mahalo -- present. (Note to my editors: Koa Coffee sent me the samples after the article was published, and they send little mahalo gifts to all journalists, as well as to their affiliates, at the end of the year. So my journalistic integrity is still intact -- or was until this blog post. ;-)

As a result of Koa Coffee's largesse, I now have two additional strategies to add to my list of inexpensive yet highly effective customer acquisition strategies: 1) give free samples; and 2) have a product so irresistibly good that people become instantly addicted and have to have more, becoming customers for life.

I also have a new favorite (highly addictive) chocolate snack: Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts.

Do not let that unassuming green wrapper fool you, my friends. Or put another way, don't judge a chocolate treat by its wrapping. Pop one of these semi-sweet-chocolate-covered orbs of Hawaiian goodness in your mouth (though you will not be able to stop at just one) and you, like the spouse and I, will be hooked.

Indeed, the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macademia Nuts were so good that to stop ourselves from instantly devouring the entire bag on the spot, I had the spouse place the bag on a really high shelf, where one (okay, I) needed a step ladder to reach it.

Ha!

Why "ha"? Because every time I walk into the kitchen, I find myself making a bee-line for the step ladder, dragging it across the kitchen floor to the cabinet where we stored the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts, climbing up and grabbing the bag, ripping it open, popping one of those delicious orbs of chocolaty nutty yumminess into my mouth, savoring its semi-sweet chocolate shell for as long as I can, and then lasciviously biting into the crunchy macadamia nut center. (Sheesh, I sound like that owl in those old Tootsie Pop commercials.)

And for the record, the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Kona Coffee Beans aren't too shabby either. Indeed, I still have a buzz from the half-dozen I scarfed over an hour ago.

God only knows what will happen when we start drinking the coffee Koa Coffee sent me, which Forbes called "the best coffee in America." (The only reason we haven't ripped into it yet is I am determined to finish off our current supply of Starbucks French Roast, which is almost depleted, first.)

All I can say is thank goodness Koa Coffee included a bag of decaf (which we have tried, and it may be the best decaffeinated coffee ever).

Btw, I am not getting paid to write this. Nor is there a free giveaway involved. (Sorry guys.) Their stuff is just that good.

Aloha for now...