Hot Chocolate

This winter season I have had a fascination for hot chocolate. I know most folks if they have a craving for such will just reach for the "Swiss Miss". If they have the patience, they will reach for the  Hershey's, taking the time to properly heat the milk and mix the cocoa, sugar and vanilla. Complicated. Or perhaps if out on the street, you might grab one at a Dunkin' Donuts or coffee shop. The later options could perhaps kill one's appetite for such.

Primarily a treat for kids, right? Who drinks hot chocolate?

Typically I do not. That changed this year. What happen? A simple sign I walked past a hundred times on 6th Avenue finally got me.  A simple sentence: The Best Hot Chocolate in NY. It is a small independent coffee shop called Cafe Bari found at 1033 6th Avenue. Actually it seems to be a chain of two. So I went in, I had passed through before and their coffee is fine, but this time I tried their hot chocolate.

Cafe Bari on 6th Avenue - where this post began!

It was good. Better than most. Many places seem to just use water or 1% milk. Seems that way. Cafe Bari's was thicker. I suspect a dash of cream was added. Maybe a little sweeter. So a thicker, sweeter cocoa. It was good. Was it the best? I don't know. For the rest of the season I had a new hobby. I started to compare various hot chocolates or cocoas. I use the terms interchangeably. Some richer, some darker with more cocoa. Some just lousy. I did not go the next step of exploring the various mocha mixes out there - just hot chocolate.

So that gave me a project for the season as I wandered Manhattan. In my travels if I saw a shop that looked interesting and they had a hot chocolate, I tried it. Probably, in hind sight, I would say Jacques Torres Chocolate in Grand Central would be my favorite. Simply, the richest and thickest, and the most convenient for myself. But then I started to experiment. I started thinking this probably can be improved upon. So went home to my kitchen and over the last month or so have in the evening gotten the cocoa and milk out and a few additional items. That is where things got interesting.

Hot Chocolate with Irish Whiskey

I looked at one recipe, which I got out of a Hershey's cookbook I had. It basically entailed starting with a base of half a cup of water with cocoa and sugar. You would heat the water and then mix it in with the sugar and cocoa. After getting that assembled, you would add your hot milk and stir. Done. Fairly simple.

My question was: Why water? Why am I adding water to hot chocolate. I never liked adding water to such a concoction. Just as one should not be watering down scotch or gin, one should not water down one' hot chocolate.

The usual suspects. . . 

So I replaced the water with Irish Whiskey. and yes it was Jameson. I know, it could be argued that I was wasting good Irish whiskey for hot chocolate. Guilty as charged. I was just curious how it would come out. I did it in the name of science.

It was, however, a positive result. I did have to heat up the whiskey and that process I imagine broke down some of the alcohol. that in turn added some additional sugar to the flavor, as alcohol is if I remember my chemistry, basically sugar. Not only did it sweeten it a bit but it also thickened it. Whiskey is simply more viscous than water to begin with. And there was still a hint of the whiskey in the final product. So not bad. Not bad at all.

This is not a hot chocolate for children, but tasty.

Hot Chocolate with Molasses

The next experiment was involving Molasses. Instead of a base of water and sugar, I would simply use molasses and cocoa. I decided not to heat this version up. Certainly not like the water. And this time I was using the one serving suggestion right on the Hershey's tin. And yes I was using basic Hershey's cocoa on both occasions.

This was not my first run-in with molasses. I have been making gingerbread men every holiday season for a long time. that is what started my fetish for molasses. I like it over sugar. A slightly different taste. I find it cool that the history of molasses shaped the United States. It was basically part of a trade war if I recall, that led in part to the revolution. Apparently molasses is needed for rum, and rum back in the eighteenth century was the drink of choice for the young Americans.

So I was and am intrigued with molasses. I was especially excited when Starbucks had a gingerbread latte. The latte was fine, but what got me was the whip cream on top with a good dose of molasses dripped on top! Screw the latte, just give me the whip cream and molasses. They have sadly discontinued that drink. I on the other hand do continue with the molasses! I bake my pecan pies with it. I add it to ice cream. and now I am mixing it up with hot cocoa. I like it.

I digress, back to my kitchen and hot cocoa. I am basically relying on the hot milk and some stirring to mix the ingredients, the cocoa and molasses concoction, which has been previously mixed and heated ever so briefly in the microwave. The ingredients, if you want the specifics are two heaping table spoons of cocoa, and likewise two heaping table spoons of molasses and the specified cup or two of milk. Feel free to throw in some vanilla I suppose. Basically, I again left out the water and this time sugar too.

And this too worked worked out nicely. Just as sweet with a hint of molasses. Surprise surprise. Again a little thicker perhaps. So another variation on hot chocolate. neither is earth shattering, but something to mix it up a little bit on a cold winter night. File it away for next year!

Of course at some point I am going to have to mix up the Jameson, and the molasses. My guess is that I won't taste either in such a concoction, but still worth a try.