So many hot chocolates and hot cocoas...not enough time in the day to try them all. But I am going to try pretty darn hard to find, or create, the ultimate hot chocolate drink. I am always on a mission to find the hot chocolate of my dreams and share it with everyone else who has the same desire. Stay tuned to hear The Cocoa Lady's hot chocolate adventures...
The other half and I decided to take a walk to around 4:00 pm today.The sky was grey with dark clouds looming near by.Regardless of the weather, we moved forth with our walk.Soon after we had some spring into our step, then it started to rain.DRATS!When it rains in Texas, it usually is a short, vicious downpour.The other half and I decided to continue on our 30 minute walk with the rain coming down.
When we arrived at home, I knew what could knock the chill out of our socks…hot chocolate.I grabbed two cups of milk, ground nutmeg, pumpkin spice, ginger, a cinnamon stick, pure vanilla, unsweetened chocolate and the alternative sweetener Splenda.This would be my first time using Splenda in any of my hot chocolate recipes.I promised another blogger a sugar free recipe for hot chocolate.So, this would be a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Things were going swimmingly in the kitchen.A little bit of this, a pinch of that…until it came to working with Splenda.Although I am accustomed to working with various sugars, I couldn’t properly judge the amount of Splenda required to make a delicious hot chocolate.
Soon, a creation was born.The flavor was okay, but it had a little bitterness to it that I know wasn’t related to the chocolate.After all that hard work, the other half comes into the kitchen and takes a sip.A silent pause, then he says, “I wanted normal hot chocolate.”Well, at least it took a pretty picture?
We finally finished cleaning up from the Stonebridge Church Holiday Market last week featuring Michelle Hammond. The hot chocolates and cocoas we shared with our booth visitors were Omanhene Hot Cocoa Mix, The King’s Cupboard Dark Chocolate Chunk, Dagoba Organic Xocoltal Hot Chocolate and Vosges Haut-Chocolat Bianca Couture Cocoa.
Visitors were exceptionally impressed with Vosges’ Bianca Couture Cocoa. The product arrived just in time for the event and I knew it would be a show stopper…which it was. I first experienced the power of Vosges Bianca while visiting Las Vegas earlier in the year. From my own personal experience, I knew people would simply love the unique spices that make up this cocoa blend.
At our own “cocoa bar”, we gave an overview of each product and the product manufacturer to interested customers. Once we explained the ingredients of Vosges’ Couture Cocoa: White Chocolate Shavings, Australian Lemon Myrtle, Lavender, people’s eyes lit up like fire. Although I had to remind them that white chocolate has absolutely no chocolate/cocoa content in it as it is derived from the fat from the cocoa bean (i.e. cocoa butter), that did not stop them from trying this cocoa. I must say Bianca made an impression on the visitors at this holiday market event.
While shopping at my local Target, I noticed a sign displaying a trio of “Signature Hot Chocolates”. I thought to myself…hmmm. Starbucks is trying to lure in the “other” untapped customer again. Chocolate Connoisseurs.
A few years back, Starbucks introduced a drinking chocolate called Chantico. However, it was never fully adopted by the market. I can easily explain why. Most people truly believe hot chocolate is a water-based flavored drink with minimal cocoa content. Chantico, from what I understand, was extremely thick and along the lines of a European drinking chocolate. Clearly, people were not ready for such an extreme from what they were accustomed to… the dreaded instant hot chocolate!
I decided to try the Signature Hot Chocolate. You can tell I am not a Starbucks customer as I still refer to the sizes as small, medium and large. Oh, I am so uncouth! When my drink arrived, it had a mild layer of whipped cream on top. I simply love it that way. Too much whipping cream takes away from the overall drink. Starbucks receives 1 point for getting the whipped cream correct.
When I finally reached the creamy hot chocolate, I was nicely surprised. It wasn’t overly sweet, had a nice consistency and flavor. Starbucks 2 points . I hate to admit it, but I was pleased. If I am ever seeking a hot chocolate on the run and have a few dollars to spare, I will consider a hot chocolate stop at Starbucks.
With another holiday shopping event this Friday, a lot of travel with my normal 9 to 5 job, and the holidays just around the corner, I thought I would get inspired vs. just being tired of the chaos.
So, I hopped into the kitchen to mix up a new hot chocolate recipe with a pint of egg nog I purchased from the grocery store. With the egg nog as my muse, I pulled out milk, vanilla, nutmeg, 99% unsweetened cacao from Scharffen Berger, Valrhona Cacao Powder and cane sugar from the refrigerator and/or pantry. First, I heated up the egg nog and milk in my double boiler over medium/low heat. Always make sure the bottom of the boiler is not actually touching the water. This helps avoid scorching the milk and/or chocolate shavings.
After warming up the nog, I added the chocolate shavings and blended continuously with a whisk. My goal was to have a creamy hot chocolate, but not due to the egg nog’s consistency. I wished the mixture to be creamy from the cocoa. Thus, I added a little Valrhona Cacao Powder to achieve the creamy richness I desired. Next, came ground nutmeg and vanilla.
Initially, I planned on adding cane sugar to the mixture. However, the sweetness from the egg nog was pleasant enough. After working out the cacao powder lumps and ensuring the chocolate shavings melted completely, the color and texture of the mixture deepened. Now, I am ready for a taste…not too bad!
I poured up a small cup for myself and the other half. After he took a sip, he said “This is good hon”. For an on the fly, holiday inspired venture, I think I created a recipe for the books.
Over the past few days it has been exceptionally hectic in our household.We just wrapped up the Junior League’s Holiday Market held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott. This was our first time participating in this holiday shopping event and it went very well.Our booth was extremely busy the entire event mostly due to our hot chocolate and marshmallow samplings.During the event we shared the following products with interested customers:
Omanhene’s Hot Cocoa Mix from Ghana
The King’s Cupboard Dark Chocolate Chunk Hot Chocolate from the USA
Dufflet Extra Brut + Madagascar Vanilla from Canada
Dufflet Mocha + Espresso from Canada
Ghirardelli’s Peppermint Hot Chocolate Mix from the USA
Mocafe Azteca D’Oro 1519 Mexican Spiced Ground Chocolate from the USA
Vanilla Bean Marshmallows from Plush Puffs from the USA
Dagoba Organic Xocoltal Hot Chocolate from the USA
Mom and Dad flew out as reinforcements for the 4-day event.This was my Dad’s first time setting up, viewing and participating in a tradeshow.He found it very chaotic and a lot of hard work.Previously, when my mom would return home from these events, he really never understood why she was so tired.Now with his first hand experience at tradeshows, he definitely understands the madness.
It was such a pleasure to see the faces of customers trying these hot chocolates for the first time.About 99% of them have never tried a true hot chocolate before.Especially after I would engage them about the product and they would ask “can you make it with water”.I just wanted to cringe when I hear that remark!The hot chocolates at the tasting booth are not made with “tri’s & di’s” or powdered milk.All of the samples were made with 2% milk and were extremely tasty.If they wished to tr
y a milk alterative, my mother would talk to the customer as she isn’t milk drinking person.Personally, as I have said before…”I am all about the cow.”
As the show wrapped up and we ran out of the King’s Cupboard Dark Chocolate Chunk, Mocafe Mexican Spice and Dagoba hot chocolate mixes.I even ran out of the Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Chunk!Normally, I do not bring sugar free mixes to the show since they never sell.However, we had a large contingency of people watching their sugar intake or had diabetes.
Initially, I planned on only sampling the Omanhene, Ghirardelli and The King’s Cupboard.
However, I became inspired by the reaction to the hot chocolates began sampling and opening up cans of Dufflet and Dagoba.The visitors have never tried anything remotely close to the sample selections and were extremely surprised at the kick of Dagoba’s Xocoltal chilies and cinnamon blend and Mocafe’s mildly spicy recipe.However, overwhelmingly the winner of the event was Omanhene’s Hot Cocoa Mix due to the chocolately flavor, simple recipe and perfect price point (6.50).
As we broke down the booth Sunday night, the chair of the Junior League came by my booth to re-introduce herself and the chair for the next year’s event.This year’s chair asked how the show was for me and noticed how consistently busy I was throughout the event.This was an honor since it was my first time being selected to participate in the event.Some of these shows are extremely difficult to get into.Hopefully, this means good news for 2009?
So, it get ready America!I am determined to educate people on the praises of drinking chocolate.Our next tradeshow is the Stonebridge Church Holiday Market in The Woodlands, Texas on November 22nd.
After my Melt excursion, the next day we went to Shanghai Red for Sunday brunch with my sister’s friends and our mommies. Shanghai Red is located along the Marina and has wonderful spread of food. Considering our reservation started at 10:00 am, we did not leave the restaurant until 4:00 pm. (Don’t worry our waitperson was compensated exceptionally well for this extended brunch!)
During that time, we enjoyed many bottles of champagne, seafood, a relaxing sea side view and excellent conversation. I must say Shanghai will go down in history as the place I tried my first cup of Mocha. Their mocha was just divine. Personally, I cannot STAND coffee. However, the blend of cinnamon and other spices took this coffee inspired drink to another level. A dollop of whipped cream on top, added an additional level of tastiness.
Between my mocha and view of some amazing luxury yachts (with helicopters), this Sunday brunch was perfect!
My sister knows I love crepes second to hot chocolate! Nonetheless, while visiting the family in California she arranged a visit to two local Manhattan Beach / El Segundo crepe cafes. There was one cafe she just knew I would love. However, I wasn’t impressed with it. Therefore, I will not waste any time talking about it. However, my favorite café out of the two is Melt. Located in a relatively new shopping center called Plaza El Segundo, Melt is nestled towards the back of this vast open air shopping center.
When we arrived at the location early Saturday morning, no one was there. I was thinking….”oh, not good”. Since we were all hungry anyways, we decided to try it out. As usual, I selected the simple Strawberry & Cream Crepe. My sister chose a plain crepe while my mom opted for the Strawberry Royale which had strawberries, bananas, Nutella and cream. The staff was friendly and since we were the only customers at that time, the food arrived quickly.
I was disappointed that the menu did not contain hot chocolate, but my disappointment washed away when I engulfed a piece of my crepe. Yummy! The crepe itself was nice and thin. Every one was extremely pleased with their selection. When a crepe is purchased, Melt offers a discount on a gelato of your choice. Since Dad loves ice cream and gelato, my sister selected a “to go” cup of gelato for him. As mom and sister made a big ordeal as to what flavor to select for him, I decided to tune out of the madness.
On my next visit to California, a Melt visit is required! I hope the foot traffic picks up and it is still there when I return.
A homesick Californian living in Texas that loves hot chocolate! I enjoy it so much I even started my own hot chocolate store called CocoaConnoisseur.com.
