Small Business Saturday

This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday, a promotion run by American Express to encourage cardmembers to spend money at local establishments. They do this by crediting you $10 for transactions of at least $10 at registered local merchants up to three times. So naturally, I went out to take advantage of this.

My first stop was Fran's Chocolates, which is a local Seattle-based chocolate boutique (aka really fancy). The promotion was the main reason I was there to shop, as the normal $2 per piece was considerably out of my price range. I sampled their single malt whiskey truffle and was immediately captivated by the richness of the truffle and the prominence of the whiskey. I used two of my three credits there on two separate transactions, both on truffle samplers. I did spend more than $10 for each transaction, but I will hopefully savor the truffles for some time.

My second stop was Trophy Cupcakes, another desert shop. I had been to Trophy Cupcakes a couple of times before, usually when I have had dinner in U-Village and was ambling around with dessert in mind. As this was towards the end of the day, there weren't too many cupcakes or flavors available. I selected a strawberry lemonade, vanilla vanilla, and carrot walnut cupcake. I brought them back to the office to split with some other students, and needless to say people enjoy free cupcakes (or almost free in my case).

Magic Morsels!

A while ago as part of Flyertalk's Secret Santa, I received a box of  sweets as part of a larger box of gifts. Now I tend to stay away from sweets, but not because I don't enjoy them. I can say no to others giving them to me and I tend not to keep any near me, thereby eliminating any temptation to consume (or over-consume) sweets. Of course, I indulge occasionally, and this Secret Santa gift was quite the opportunity.

The sweets in question was a 24-box sampler of Magic Morsels, which are bite-sized brownies from Phoenix, AZ-based Fairytale Brownies. When I first opened the box, I had no idea what Magic Morsels were, until I saw the brownie label on the treats. There were six flavors inside the box: original, caramel, chocolate chip, creme cheese, raspberry swirl, and walnut.

Box of Magic Morsels (Click to Enlarge)

I quickly opened one up an original-flavored and it was absolutely delicious-very smooth and not too sweet. I managed to pace myself through the box over about a week and was a hit with the few other grad students I shared them with (mostly because I was eating them...). All of the flavors were delicious, but I would have to say my favorites were creme cheese and raspberry swirl.

An original Magic Morsel (Click to Enlarge)