This week is teacher appreciation week  and mother’s day so I wanted to share with you a quick but thoughtful gift. Since most people either drink coffee or tea I thought about this simple treat. You can even make the flavored spoons for an event that you were serving teas and coffees.

First you can start with a hand crafted ceramic mug. Find an inexpensive one at the dollar store and use sharpies for an inexpensive yet not long lasting mug. Or the craft stores have many ceramic paints now that you can make something more permanent. I am not sure how easy the paints are or if you have to bake them on, just be sure and read the directions before buying your mug if you go this route.

Even simpler, you can even have the child decorate a plain styrofoam cup.

For the coffee drinker, dip spoons, plastic or inexpensive stainless found at thrift stores, into melted chocolate. Simply microwave the chocolate until smooth, you can add flavored extracts like peppermint, vanilla, or kahlua.

Just have the child dip the spoon and set on parchment paper to set. If it is warm in your house you can place the spoons into the fridge to set up quickly. Once set, you can cover them with saran wrap or lollipop covers and tie with a ribbon.

Simply add a bag of coffee to the mug, place in a plastic bag and tie it up with the spoons.

For the tea drinker, use a heavy duty spoon, most ideal would be a stainless as you will witness from my first attempts at this.

Melt some lemon, orange or peppermint hard candies in the microwave at 15 second intervals. When completely melted coat the spoons and place on a silpat to harden. It takes no time to harden so work quickly. You may want to just melt enough for a few spoons at a time.

If it is too hot, the plastic spoon will melt!! Also it will stick to wax paper.
The candy is very hot so you may want to do this part for the child.

Once hardened, wrap them the same way as the chocolate spoons.

If you are going to use a mug, add a little crumbled paper to the bottom of the mug and add the tea bags and sugar spoons. Tie with a pretty ribbon.

If you want to skip the mug just wrap up a box of  tea bags with a few spoons.

For a little nicer gift, include a gift card from a local coffee shop.
In the fall and winter, you can pack up the chocolate spoons with  hot cocoa!
*** I just was at Michael’s and they have mugs and markers available in a set for $1.50. What a deal!!
Be sure to check out the other teacher gifts we have done in the past.