Black Dagger Brotherhood Watch Party!

I took last week off from The Grimoire Cafe while I traveled with my family, but now I’m back and it’s such a joy to settle back into my favorite (imaginary) coffee shop 😉

It’s a grey, comfortably warm day today at The Grimoire. The windows are open, and the air smells faintly of coming rain. It’s jeans-and-a-tee kind of weather, perfect for a light, simple cappuccino. Not too fussy, not too sweet. There’s no line, so you walk right up to the antique, carved bar to order Tini’s amazing cold brew with caramel cold foam. (Recipe at the end!)

While you wait for your coffee, listening to the rhythmic sounds of coffee being crafted, you turn and notice that, while you were gone, a new resident artist’s work has been put on display. The frames are simple, painted in jewel tones–cerulean, emerald, even sherbet orange–bright against the dark grey walls of the cafe. Within the frames, the art is high contrast and expressive, paint layered thick and textured on canvas and board, all animal subjects that make you smile.

“Here you go.” Tini smiles as she hands you a clear glass of iced coffee. “New artist is pretty great, right? Her name is Kate Fitzpatrick.”

As you settle in at a table, you think you’ll have to look that new artist up…

(Kate is hosting KissFist Mural Fest, a mural festival featuring deaf and hard-of-hearing artists in Denver, CO in October! Plus her art is gorgeous. Check her out!)

You know what I did last night? I watched the first two episodes of the new Black Dagger Brotherhood series on Passionflix with some of my favorite people–my sisters!

It was so fun!!

Campy? A little. True to the books? YES!

This series knows what it is. It’s not ashamed of it, but it’s not making fun either. I’m gonna be honest, I was so pleasantly surprised. I was real worried it was going to be a trainwreck 😅 It’s not though!

The Books

The first season of The Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB) streaming series is based on book 1 of the book series of the same name, titled Dark Lover. It’s a seminal text in the world of paranormal romance. If you are a PNR fan and you haven’t read it yet, I can’t recommend it highly enough.* The entire BDB book series is one of my all time faves, and yes I am still reading it, more than 20 books in. JR Ward’s world building is *chef’s kiss* and her sexy scenes? 🔥 x 1000. Her writing style was an influence on my own style while writing both The Cloaked Series and the Bloodline Saga. I just love how conversational the dialog is, and the way she uses phrasing as impact. Her character’s voices are so distinct, I always know whose talking and it’s like I’m part of the conversation. The tone of the BDB series hits the sweet spot between dark and hopeful, too. It’s gritty, but not desolate (though you’d never see me buying a condo in Caldwell, New York, true?)

Passionflix

So does the vibe of the steaming series live up to the Caldwell and Brotherhood of the books? Yes and no. The amount of budget required to recreate what is in my head while I read these books into visual medium would be on par with something like The Matrix–which is to say out of reach for a new platform like Passionflix. I had no expectation of parity between my imagination and the screen. But did they do a damn good job laying the scaffolding? Yeah, they really did!

Did they miss the mark in one of two places? Of course they did. The Brotherhood’s leathers are WAY too pristine (these males have been fighting lessers for hundreds of years. They take good care of their shit, sure, but there is no world where their leathers should look like they just came off a hanger at Wilsons.) But can I forgive them? Yes.

Speaking of Lessers, whoa howdy, did they do a good job with those assholes!! I’ll be honest, I often sort of skim by the scenes with the lessening society because *Vampires* are what I’m there for. But Passionflix did not skim over them and the effect of those paled out white men in a pale room, teaching karate to lonely young men, ripe for radicalization hits SO FUCKING CREEPY!

Have you read Dark Lover, and/or watched the BDB series on Passionflix? What do you think??

*As with all books, but especially stories written before 2019, check content warnings before reading. Dark Lover contains some themes that might be hard for some. Likewise, with the Passionflix series. In the first episode there is a scene that contains an SA. The victim gets away (and kicks the asshole in the nuts while she’s at it.)

Tini’s Amazing Cold Brew with Caramel Cold Foam

Making cold brew coffee is not hard. It sounds so fancy, but all you have to do is combine course-ground coffee and water, stick it in the fridge for 12-24 hours, and Voila!

Cold Brew.

So what makes the cold brew at The Grimoire Cafe so great? It’s a secret: She steeps vanilla beans along with the coffee.

Easy, right? But it makes a huge difference! Cold brew is so mellow and smooth to begin with, the vanilla is a subtle, lovely addition. When you’re brewing a home batch, all you need is one vanilla bean, and you can use that one bean for a few batches. I’ve also used one scoop of Trader Joe’s vanilla flavored ground coffee among the scoops of my unflavored, freshly ground beans in a pinch, and that did a great job too.

You can use a mason jar to steep your cold brew, or buy a simple cold brew pitcher with a built in strainer–up to you! I like this article for pointers, if you’re looking for more direction.

Now, to make caramel cold foam, you’re going to combine

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons 2% milk

1 tablespoon caramel sauce

Stir to combine. Then, choose your own adventure:

You can use a milk frother, or a french press coffee maker to create the foam. To use a handheld milk frother, simply froth until you’ve created foam. In a french press, pour in the combined ingredients, put on the lid, and push the plunger down. Now lift and press the plunger 40 times, or until the foam reaches the right consistency. I haven’t tried the french press method, but I found it here. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!