Exotic Hot Chocolate Ingredients

I am back in California so you know what that means!!!! A trip to Surfas…this shopping trip I came away with Cinnamon & Orange Sugar, Black Onyx Cocoa Powder (Dutch-processed), Palm Sugar from Thailand, and Lake Champlain’s Organic Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (Dutched processed).

My mother surprised me with her own hot chocolate/hot cocoa ingredient shopping trip. When I arrived back home, my mother purchased actual Crillo and Forestero cocoa nibs along with beans from the Madagascar and Mexican Tabasco region.

Furthermore, I received organic powders to create our own exotic hot chocolate mixes including Goji Berry Powder, Butterscotch, Amaretto, Cheesecake, Green Papaya and a few more but I cannot remember their names. Also, mommie got Bavarian Cream, Apple and Black Raspberry extracts to truly enhance our homemade hot chocolate day. We are going to have hella-fun creating hot chocolates and cocoas with these wicked ingredients…

It’s about time…a cocoa machine

It’s been a busy holiday season and the hot chocolate business has been going well. Now, I found a new fixation…the Back-To-Basics Cocoa Latte Machine. Everywhere you look, another blasted coffee machine comes to the market.

Finally, Back-To-Basics delivers a machine just for us hot chocolate aficionados. Simply add your powdered hot chocolate mix along with milk or water to the Cocoa Latte Machine. Press the froth button and the machine mixes all of the ingredients together and even heats everything up! When you are ready for a cup, just put your mug under the spout and pour away.

The best attribute about this machine is that when the hot chocolate is no longer at the optimum temperature, the machine heats it up until it is drink/hot ready. Absolutely perfect! What’s even better…no skim. I hate skim on top of my hot chocolate, but I didn’t have that experience with the Cocoa Latte Machine.

Hot Chocolate Souffle

After returning home from the Thanksgiving holiday. I was off to Austin, Texas for a short meeting. Our department dinner was at Roy's Restaurant. Although I should be looking for a main dinner course. I zoned in on the Hot Chocolate Souffle. Forget dinner, give me the souffle! As usual and in typical Texas style, I order a wonderful steak. Just enough for dinner, but leaves room for dessert.

Roy's Hot Chocolate Souffle was absolutely divine! It was thick with a vicious chocolate punch. Some of my co-workers were sharing their desserts...but not I. Touch my Hot Chocolate Souffle at your own risk!

The good news is that their is a Roy's back home in California so you know where I will be going this Christmas.

Addicted to Mocafe Aztec D'Oro

A trip to California wouldn’t be the same without checking out a new hot chocolate while visiting the family. Grocery shopping isn’t the same without a quick breeze down the hot chocolate isle of any supermarket. While at Bristol Farms Market in El Segundo, I came across MoCafe’s Aztec D’Oro 1519. I’ve seen it in print but never on the supermarket shelves in Texas. So, I picked up a can asked my mom to make the family some Thanksgiving hot chocolate. I even convinced my dad, a die-hard coffee drinker, to indulge with me.

Low and behold, I created a monster. My father simply enjoys this mix. I was very impressed with the texture and scent of this Aztec brew. The ingredients of this hot chocolate are as follows: Pure Hawaiian cane sugar, premium Forestero cocoa, ground chocolate (sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin emulsifier, and pure vanilla), spices, all natural flavors and salt.

Reluctantly, I left the can behind for my father. My mom just called me on Tuesday to say my dad had three cups of this hot chocolate and asked where I got it. Off to Pasadena, California my mother will go to stock up on this hot chocolate. At the rate my father is going, we better buy it in bulk. I’ve turned another coffee drinker away from the dark side!