Hot cocoa addicts' hangout
 

So I'm a fan of hot chocolate. Not a connoiseur, perhaps, but I like the stuff. Grew up mostly on Swiss Miss with some occasional 'gourmet' flavors, but since moving to Utah I've been introduced to a number of different brands, and I must say that I'm a fan of Stephen's hot chocolate. I have a freaking huge tin of chocolate mint (care of Costco) and two little tins of raspberry, along with some french vanilla just for kicks.

The raspberry hot chocolate you can get from Starbuck's is pretty ace, too.

What kinds of hot chocolate, if any, do you enjoy? Do you do anything special with it (ie, I mix marshmallows in before I mix in any cocoa powder stuff)?

I am mostly a coffee person, but hot chocolate is a nice change from time to time.

I'm not fond of the stuff that comes in a tin, though. A tablespoon each of cocoa and brown sugar dissolved in a mug of hot milk is much, MUCH better.

That sounds pretty interesting. I've never heard that particular 'recipe' before - I may have to give it a shot at some point.

The brown sugar has enough moisture in it to make the mixture "instant" as such; it dissolves pretty readily. :) Failing that, though, plain sugar + cocoa + a splash of cold milk stirred in while you're waiting for the rest to heat up works as well, though it takes a bit more effort.

A vanilla bean stuck in the milk when you're heating it is excellent also, or a chili pepper (seriously) or cinnamon stick or a candy cane melted into the works for holiday spirit. Now whenever I have to resort to packaged mixes they taste watery to me, heh.

I've never really tried out different types of hot chocolate; I just drink whatever my mom happens to grab at the store, which is usually Swiss Miss. I can't go without hot chocolate when it's cold. I usually have a cup every morning during the winter to warm me up because I'm always freezing when I get out of bed. The only special thing that I do with my hot chocolate is buy the no-marshmallows brand and put whipped cream on top instead. I think it tastes way better that way.

By the way, that brown sugar cocoa recipe sounds good. I'll try it out the next chance that I get.

Tani touched on the best style of hot chocolate. Kind of. The trick is to slowly melt dark chocolate in a warm water bath, and then mix it in with hot milk from that point, blending the whole thing into a delicious, dark, dark chocolate mix. Then you add either hot chili, or cayenne (makes it a little sweet) and then sip over the course of an hour. It will blow your fucking mind.

Im trying this tonight. Im serious leaving to pick up some dark chocolate in a few minutes.

The chili is important... it will catch right on the back of your tongue. Better than an orgasm.

I drove to a 24 hour Kroger up the road, and got the dark chocolate only to come home and realize I have no milk.

Tomorrow I will return a verdict. Its too late to drive back out. I want the full effect. No substitutes.

Deni, that sounds amazing. I'll have to give it a shot. Maybe over the holidays so I can put the cost of the materials on my parents' tab....

Well, if you're going out tomorrow, I'll give you a more complex recipe. The one I gave you will work fine, though you may want to sweeten it a little. Anyway, here's how I make it when I'm doing it for company.


This is called Mayan Hot Chocolate.

Basically what you need is this:
2 cups boiling water
1 chile pepper, cut in half, seeds removed
5 cups light cream or whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cinnamon stick
8 oz bittersweet / dark chocolate or 3 tablets of Mexican chocolate, grated or slivered thin.
2 tablespoons sugar or honey, (really this is just to taste, so however much you want)

Dried chile powder or cayenne (I prefer cayenne, as the bright red makes for a very nice presentation)

l tablespoon almonds or hazelnuts, ground extra fine (optional)
Whipped cream (optional)





Now, for preparation.



Take a saucepan, add the water and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, add the chili pepper to the water, and cook until the water reduces down to about a cup. Remove the chili pepper, strain the water, and set it to the side.



In a saucepan, at medium heat, combine the cream/milk, vanilla bean, and cinnamon stick until it begins to bubble. Reduce the heat to low, add your chocolate shavings, your sugar/honey, and whisk it until the chocolate is melted and the sugar is completely disolved. This is important. No lumpy sugar. Now turn off the heat, remove the vanilla and cinnamon sticks. Add the chile water, a bit at a time, tasting to make sure the flavour of the chile doesn't overpower the chocolate. If the mixture is too thick, lighten it with cream/milk, NOT WATER.

Now, you want to serve this in small, thin, tea-like cups for proper presentation. I like to leave a strand of the vanilla bean in the cup, standing upright, only for the look. And then sprinkle the cayenne/chili powder on top. Just a little, it's more for the colour than anything. Give it a quick swirl to make the colours spiral on the top of the chocolate, and then you're golden. Also, if you want, you can top it with whipped cream and crushed nuts, though that's slightly less traditional (though, to be VERY traditional... no sugar. It's bitter, but a great taste sensation when paired with fresh fruit or a dessert.)

Enjoy.

That recipe almost warrants another trip tonight. I will be shopping tomorrow after work. Thats a gurantee.

Quick question. Will the Hershey's dark chocalate work ok, or do you insist on another?

Hershey's is fine. Just make sure you shave it really thing so it melts evenly. Lumps = not as much fun.

With rare exception, I don't like the gourmet stuff. They have all these stupid, crazy flavors with mint and rasberry and stuff. If I wanted rasberry, I'd go eat some rasberries, stop mucking up my hot chocolate.

I'm a sucker for the instant stuff but I perfer to put in my own marshmellows.

Damn right. Instant chocolate, no frills. Simple but effective.

I LOVE hot chocolate. Its my favorite, especially since I don't like coffee. The Raspberry Hot chocolate at Tim Horton's is awesome too! I usually make my own Hot chocolate when I am at home, but when I am at school (I live on campus), I usually have Tim Horton's Hot Chocolate. I don't have it often though, mainly because I hate waiting in line...

Hot chocolate is my favorite hot drink. Considering I don't like coffee in any form, that's not saying much (tea anyone) but I do loves me some hot cocoa, especially the Stephen's brand. Just last night, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up three canisters of it: Irish Creme, Orage Creme, and French Vanilla. I used to have hot chocolate every day before school - I'd either bring my own, or walk to the Shell station nearby and buy a 24oz cup of it for $1.05 and mix in a bunch of irish creme flavoring. I like using it as a date tool in the wintertime. "Hey, let's make some hot chocolate and go look at the stars while we snuggle together in this blanket." Good stuff.

I will admit, if you can get homemade hot cocoa, somewhat like what's been described here, it easily bests any "instant" hot beverage. I've had it once before and I could not get enough, I drank probably 12 cups of it in a two-hour period.

Hot cocoa is great, but I find that I have a limit of like two or three mugs worth before I start getting sick of it. Maybe it's because the instant cocoa packs have a lot of sugar in them or something, but by the third cup or so it starts to feel really sweet and kind of cloggy.

On the other hand, maybe I should just rinse my mug out after each cup...

Hot chocolate is my crack. When I was in Japan, the vending machines (conveniently located everywhere), dispense hot hot cocoa and it was like Heaven. My friend said that every second, I had a drink in my hand. It's true, though. As soon as I finished one can, I'd go stray from the group and find a vending machine.

Here back in NYC, its harder for me to get, but sometimes I do go to the Deli and get some after school. I keep forgetting to pick some up for the house though. :(

Hot chocolate is the shit. I recently found that Nestle Strawberry milk syrup, and use it now waaaayy more than the chocolate syrup. Not really hot chocolate anymore, but hot milk drink nontheless.

Last year for Christmas we made home-made marshmallows, except it was one massive marshmallow in a pan, and you took scoops. That made the hot chocolate that year friggin tasty.

Hot chocolate! On white, wintery days it tastes even better. On days when you come home wet and cold, it hits the spot so well. I've always had instant hot chocolate until I watched the movie Chocolat. Never knew the real stuff existed till then.

Fiddlegoof, would you happen to remember how to make home-made marshmallows?

If I'm looking for something warm to drink, hot chocolate is usually what I go for first. I also like drinking tea, but I find myself enjoying chocolate a bit more. There's a small coffee shop at my school that makes hot chocolate that's just right. Some of the cocoa in the packets are a little too sweet for me.

Back in school, whenever it was cold, I'd go for either hot cocoa or this hot vanilla mix thing. Good stuff. We're weren't supposed to bring drinks into the labs either, but when you're gonna be in there for hours and hours, yeah... screw that. :p

So I tried Ghirardelli double chocolate cocoa mix last night.

Instant love. I added in a touch of raspberry cocoa mix to sweeten it up (not much), and it was like heaven. Nicely bitter, very rich. I'm going to have to invest in more than the 4 packets that came with a Christmas tin I got.