I have become pre-diabetic and crave a wintertime afternoon hot chocolate.

I've tried Swiss Miss (dark chocolate variety) and it's good IF you use two packets for a cup and a half. That pretty much makes it twice as expensive as you'd think.

So, after trying a few of the readily available supermarket shelf products, I've discovered Caffe D'Vita (brand) Sugar Free Premium European Chocolate. It comes powdered in a can and sweetened with Splenda which is (to my taste) the least annoying artificial sweeteners and most sugar-like of the zero-cal artificials.

It's simply yummy and is spooned from a 10 oz or one pound can. (No packets so you can adjust to your taste).

It's pretty much a great velvety chill-killer.

See it here: http://tinyurl.com/kp8vl8r

JP

Update from Joypebble 1/7/13

Update: After two years, there seems to be a slight lowering of the bar with occasionally slightly overcooked veggies and smaller portions of their key specials, such as the amazingly inexpensive roasted chicken dinner plate. Veggies mushy and chicken cooked a little dry as if the size got smaller but the cooking time stayed the same; A recipe for over-cooking for sure.

Also, even though the wait staff is well trained and extremely friendly, the hosting team at the front end has turned to “bored-no-eye-contact drop-the-menu-and-run-away” when seating guests. (Training school closed?) Not the way it was during the first two years.

Eveready is the region's best diner and one of the area's best restaurants. Not possible, you say?

The Brewster Eveready at Exit 19 on I-84 has had lines out the door since it opened.
\Anyone we've taken there has invariably returned on their own with guests.

It's just the right place for beautifully presented chef of diner fare served by well-trained sought-after is always pleasing and inexpensive. How many times when you are being served your meal in any diner, does everybody at the table go, "Oooooh! That looks nice." Well, at Eveready, we say it and hear is a lot.

The decor is "fun" '50's "diner" but you'll spend most of the time looking at the platters you ordered.

It's our go to place when we are a group of diners who can agree on what the common mood is tonight.

We love the Eveready!

--GG

With all due respect, if you want to make coffee in a percolator then it makes no difference what kind of coffee you use.

Most serious coffee drinkers know that any drip process delivers the best flavor by far. The reason is that in the drip process, the water temperature is kept 15 to 20 degrees below boiling which keeps the beans from releasing the bitter and acidic elements, leaving only the sweet essence extracted from the bean. When you use boiling water (which is exactly what the percolator does) to force the water up the stem, you will have very inferior tasting coffee. Also, the percolating process deposits coffee oils into the inside of the percolating water-delivery stem. If this is not washed off with detergent, using a skinny stem brush, after each use, the oil will turn rancid almost immediately and flavor every cup of coffee with that rancid taste forever until it is cleaned off. Glass post and disposble paper filters are the best way to keep the future brews free of this miserable taste.

Keep in mind that percolators are re-cooking the coffee in the multiple squirts and washing the beans over and over with already cooked coffee. More bitter tastes will be released with every boiling bubble squirt that happens.

You can save a lot of money and just go to a truck stop at 2:00am and drink a cup of stagnant, smelly, stewed-beyond-all--recognition so-called coffee for only 75¢.

Please try any brew system that filters the water during one pass through the beans. You will love the taste and then you can experiment with the brands.

For starters, try the inexpensive Chock Full-O-Nuts varieties. They're good and cheap.

Use the percolator to keep fresh cut flowers in.

---JP
(A screaming coffee nut)

When a Diner serves fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast, it's NOT just another diner! The Eveready is a welcome addition to our community which is, frankly a culinary Black Hole with predominately Italian pizzeria cuisine.
The Eveready features inexpensive, well present and imaginative dishes with mammoth portions served by a really friendly (well-trained) staff. We've been back about twenty times in the last 6 months and have found that when we bring friends, they return on their own. That's a testimony to a really good eatery.
Modest prices, interesting combinations and specials and the veggies are always fresh tasting and crispy.
The really good news is that you can take guests with really differing tastes and everybody will find something that they like.
---Joypebble

I experience and judge the pleasures of life as a right brain dominant person. I trust and communicate with emotions.

That is, I savor experiences as they strike me emotionally. I express these experiences using a verbally picturesque phraseology that engages like-minded people on a deeper level than the scientifically correct analysis.

That said and for the analogy-challenged reader, here my answers to your questions.

"Not so warm experience" means I was greeted with a skeptical expression that suggested "What are you doing here" rather than "Hello and welcome..." The people were all cool and passively expressing inconvenience.

Attitude: (See above).

"Look-what-I-can-do dishes"

Dishes described in a manner that suggests obscure combinations with too much verbiage and not enough palate appeal. In other words, a left brain list of ingredients apparently designed to amaze foodies with all the current epicurean buzz-words and not elicit one drop of anticipatory saliva. Nobody wants to eat words. The appeal seemed to be aimed at word collectors, not hungry diners.

So, what I'm saying is that a judge might throw my case out, but a jury would smile and know precisely what I am saying.

---JP

With thanks for the suggestions here, our foursome dined last night at the Arch in Brewster.

Simply stated, it was a colossal home run! The greeting and service was gracious and friendly (not always the same) and immediately gave us the impression that this was going to be good. It was. The eye-rolling and pleasure groans started with the appetizers and continued through elegantly presented main courses ended with an almost indecent chorus of moans when all four of us enjoyed a sensational creamy and not-too-sweet Raspberry Soufflé.

The bill for four including wine, an extra $6.00 per for the four soufflés and an appreciative gratuity was $440. Not for every day but certainly within reason for a very special occasion.

The arch was elegantly romantic and the food simply delicious. It was wonderful way to celebrate a birthday and anniversary.

We started discussing plans to return before the check arrived.

---Gary Gladstone