Hot Chocolate

November 25, 2008

In America I always called it hot chocolate. Here (in Japan) people call it cocoa. (That is used in America too I know, but here it’s pronounced ko-ko-a, not ko-ko. Slightly different 😉

Names aside, it’s still basically the same delioucious drink, and it’s here at my desk where I just finished enjoying one that I was inspired to write this post.

I relish childhood memories of the special treat of having “toast and hot chocolate” for breakfast. I remember distinctly how Mom would make each of us kids a plate of toast, cut into strips so it would fit into our mugs, which were also usually on the plate. (so the plate would catch the drips as the toast traveled from the mug to our mouths)

I always loved to dip the crispy toast in the steaming mug ’til it was nice and soggy and full of hot chocolate before quickly biting off the dipped part. Or sometimes I wouldn’t wait as long and there would still be a nice little crunch when I bit it off.  Oooh delicious!

Now I realize there are slight variations in how the drink is made and my preferences and tastes have changed through the years. Being health conscious, I don’t like most of the pre-packaged hot chocolate mixes as most of them contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.  Also, I don’t like to drink cows milk, and most of the packages contain that too.

I like to make my hot chocolate with all the basic ingredients; milk, sweetener, and cocoa.

I usually use soy-milk, with cocoa powder and sugar to taste. (A full Tablespoon of cocoa, and about twice that much of sugar.)  Sometimes I’ll add a tiny bit of salt, and vanilla to make it extra special.
I either mix it all and heat it up. Or, I’ll heat the milk first, then add the rest. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to get the cocoa powder to mix in. If you are having trouble or if you want an extra smooth drink with nice chocolate foam, pour the heated milk and the rest of the ingredients into a blender (or something similar) and whiz away!

Pour into a heated glass mug, and top it off with whipped cream and sprinkle cocoa powder on top. There you have it!! A beautiful drink fit for a king or queen.
Now I’m off to clean my hot chocolate mug…