Hot Chocolate Recommendations?
My favorite is Abuelita Mexican Chocolate. It has wonderful cinnamon notes just above a very robust and barely sweet chocolate base. Abuelita comes in thick hexagonal slabs, you break one up, drop the pieces into milk in a heavy (to slow scalding) stove pot and simmer until the bits have melted. I like to finish it off by frothing it with one of those electric hand-held drink mixers but a wire whisk will do as well. I’m severely lactose intolerant but I’ll suffer through to get me some Abuelita’s.
I really like the cocoa camino milk and dark chocolate mixes–fair trade and organic to boot. No idea if it’s available near you, alas.
Mmm. Hot chocolate. My favorite homemade recipe: 2 1/2 oz. super high-quality dark chocolate, all smashed up 1 vanilla bean (optional) 2 tsp sugar 1 c. milk 1/2 c. heavy cream Slowly heat in a saucepan, stirring/whisking often. Pour into a cup, add cinnamon to taste, and top with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and some cocoa powder. (Of course, if that’s too much work, you can’t go wrong with Abuelita…
Since people are discussing Abuelita, which is great, I thought I’d add that I have a slight preference for Ibarra which is less sweet. Used not only to make hot chocolate but also its rich, thicker cousin – Champurrado. If you live in San Francisco and are too lazy to make Champurrado, there are places in the Mission to get it, including Delfin on 24th which also makes a great Atole de Nuez.
Godiva makes some very nice hot cocoa mixes. For the full experience, warm up a mixture of milk somewhat richer than whole milk (I use about half whole milk, about half half-and-half). In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a barista at a bookstore’s cafe, and we make hot chocolate as above with the Godiva Classic Milk Chocolate mix.
