Chocolate is hot
• Talk chocolate
• Traditional Mexican hot chocolate a treat
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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As you can learn in a stroll through the Bishop Museum's current traveling exhibit, "Chocolate," the first use of the cacao bean was to make a bitter, thin, spicy drink that the Mayans, and later the Aztecs, found as addictive as we do Godiva and Ghirardelli today.
The grandchild of that drink was hot chocolate made with sweetened bar chocolate. And the great-grandchild appeared when manufacturers learned how to make cocoa, a powdered product from which much of the butterfat has been removed.
While our hot weather and chocolate-unfriendly climate make chocolate a less-than-frequent drink for most of us, fall, Halloween, holiday entertaining and any little bit of chilly weather may bring hot chocolate to mind.
It's a good time to be thinking about it, because hot chocolate is hot. Chic chocolatiers have created a number of scrumptious and beautifully packaged products based on ground chocolate, not cocoa. High-end chocolate companies have released widely available cocoa mixes. And there's a distinct trend toward concoctions that look back to the drink's indigenous roots, adding spices and chilies to the mix.
In a recent taste comparison, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal food editor Sarah Fritschner and her colleagues checked out cocoa mixes from commonplace to gourmet. Their conclusions:
Of all the common supermarket brands, Swiss Miss is the best (when made with milk).
Swiss Miss is rich and creamy, the Courier-Journal said, but it is also "the definition of ultrasweet (sugar and corn syrup are its first two ingredients), and while it does have lots of body, a kind of creaminess, there's nothing really chocolaty about it. That's not surprising, since chocolate, even cocoa, is an expensive ingredient," and Swiss Miss sells for less than $2 a box. Grade A among grocery mixes.
Other brands — Hershey's, Nestle's and Nesquick — were thin by comparison, even when made with milk.
Ghirardelli, a brand more often available in supermarkets and nearly always available in specialty stores, sells for about the same price per serving (19 cents) as Swiss Miss.
Said the Courier-Journal: Ghirardelli is really good hot-chocolate mix, and certainly the "best buy" among the specialty mixes we tasted. It's not too sweet, it has great body, there's deep, rich color, and the chocolate flavor is very clear, not murky. Perhaps that's because it seems to have the fewest additives. A nice touch: The sweetness comes from sugar, not from "corn-syrup solids."
A- among premium cocoa mixes.
Godiva makes the best. No surprises there. It costs about $10. That translates to 71 cents per serving.
Godiva might specialize in chocolate, but it's a chocolate company within a multinational soup corporation. Campbell's owns Godiva, and the products are made with growth and profit in mind.
Industrial pedigree notwithstanding, the hot chocolate has a clear chocolate flavor. It is not overly sweetened, which further focuses our attention on enjoying the chocolate. Its dark color bodes a rich flavor, and it has substantial body that allows lingering pleasure. A+ among premium cocoa mixes.
The Advertiser did some additional taste-resting, both in the supermarket and of gourmet lines available locally.
From the supermarket, we tried Ovaltine Chocolate, a granular mix meant to be blended with milk, which has a pleasant, malty flavor. It's fat- and cholesterol-free (until you add the milk). And we tried Safeway Select's European Cafe Style Hot Cocoa Dark Chocolate mix, designed to be made with water; it did have a darker flavor than the usual run of cocoa, but still seemed thin and overly sugared (sugar is the first ingredient).
Scharffenberger Cocoa is a pure, natural, unsweetened cocoa which you blend with water or milk, and sugar or flavorings to your desired taste; we found it at Honolulu Chocolate Co., ($10.50 for a 6-ounce can). Disappointingly, the directions that come with the can do not include a hot-cocoa recipe. We tried placing 1 tablespoon cocoa powder in a saucepan with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and drizzling in a tablespoon of warm milk, stirring to form a thick paste. Then we added a scant cup of milk and brought the whole to simmering. The result was the perfect, tawny, intensely chocolaty "nighty night" cup of cocoa. An A+ among premium cocoa mixes.
Hot-chocolate tasting:
Mexican chocolate. "Like Water for Chocolate" — remember that book and film? The title has its basis in a Mexican saying that refers to people who are prone to get all worked up: "El (or ella) es como agua por chocolate" — "He (or she) is like water for chocolate." This refers to the fact that, for Latin Americans, hot chocolate isn't hot chocolate unless it's been beaten to a pleasant froth by means of a carved wooden implement called a molinillo.
In Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, chocolate drinks range from a simple preparation of melted chocolate, water and a little sugar, to rich preparations involving milk and even eggs, and to spicy drinks that have their roots in the drinks prepared by the ancient discoverers of chocolate, the Mayans.
I used a plain Colombian brand of chocolate, Luker ($3.99 for 8.75 ounces at El Mercado de la Raza) and found my first effort — made by just plunking everything into the pot and simmering — thin, bitter and gritty. Then I tried the technique suggested by Martha Sanchez of El Mercado: Melt the chocolate together with a little water, then add milk and sugar and whisk to a froth with a molinillo. This was much better. Best was when the mixture was poured through a fine-mesh screen before being whisked to a froth.
The whisking takes a bit of practice with a molinillo, and can be messy; Mexican cooks use a special pot with a narrow opening and broad base so the mixture doesn't splatter everywhere. I found a whisk a lot easier to use if much less picturesque.
The flavor of Mexican chocolate is slightly bitter with acidic tones almost like coffee. It lends itself to blending with spices and aromatics — vanilla, orange, cinnamon, even chilies.
When it comes to premium hot-chocolate preparations, prepare for sticker shock — and some of the most decadent experiences you've ever had with a cacao bean.
Jacques Torres Wicked Hot Chocolate. Chocolatier Jacques Torres is one of New York's hottest confectioners, and this charmingly named product in the bright orange tin is not a cocoa mix but a chunky blend of ground chocolate, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, powdered milk, cornstarch and chilies. Made with hot water or milk, it's a dark cocoa color with a tongue-teasing meaty flavor, slightly chalky but also creamy with a very slight degree of chili heat. A 21-ounce can at Honolulu Chocolate Co. sells for $26. They make a traditional hot-chocolate flavor I didn't try. A definite A-list beverage.
MarieBelle Aztec Hot Chocolate. Maribel Lieberman's contemporary chocolate creations, from her "cacao bar and tea room" in New York City's SoHo neighborhood, have been profiled in all the major style magazines. Her hot-chocolate mix contains no cocoa powder; it's made of Venezuelan chocolate, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, milk, cornstarch, soy lecithin and flavorings.
The gorgeous aqua, chocolate and copper-colored tins are imprinted with three recipes for preparing the chocolate. I chose the plain American-style (with milk), but there's also European-style made with water and a recipe for making a chilled mousse. This soft brown drink was intensely chocolaty, rich and silky textured. The Spicy version was slightly darker in both color and flavor and contained some combination of coffee, chipotle chile, ancho chile, cinnamon and nutmeg. The blends is $22 for a 20-ounce tin at Neiman Marcus. A+, all you could want from a cup of hot chocolate.
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Cocoa: A drink made from hot water or milk, cocoa powder and sometimes flavorings (sugar or other sweeteners; spices, vanilla, etc.).
Hot chocolate: A drink made from hot water or milk , bittersweet, semisweet or sweet chocolate (cut or shaved from a chocolate bar) and sometimes flavorings (sugar or other sweeteners; spices, vanilla, etc.).
Natural cocoa powder: The dried and ground form of chocolate liquor — cacao beans that have been fermented, dried, roasted, cracked and ground to a paste, extracting most of the cocoa butter.
Dutch-process cocoa: Cocoa powder that has been treated with an alkali to help neutralize acidity.
Cocoa mixes: Cocoa powder combined with sugar and powdered milk; mixed with hot water to make cocoa.
• • •
Traditional Mexican hot chocolate a treat
Hot chocolate is an easy-to-make, luxurious drink best appreciated with a sweet roll in the morning or with small, crisp, plain cookies in the evening, for dessert.
A traditional method of making Mexican-style hot chocolate begins with a step that many experienced cooks will find shocking — combining chocolate with water. After all the times you've been been warned not to combine water with chocolate so it won't "seize" (harden and form clumps), how could this be? The difference is that, in this case, the chocolate is of a different formulation than the baking chocolate with which cooks normally work and the water is very hot.
This recipe is from the Web site of internationally known chocolate expert and cookbook author Elaine Gonzalez, an excellent resource (www.chocolate-artistry.com). The technique is similar to that followed by O'ahu's own Martha Sanchez of El Mercado de la Raza. Note the flavor variations below.
The chocolate used here is the sort that is found in Latin groceries and departments in grocery stores.
Chocolate Mexicano
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 ounces Mexican-style chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 2 cups milk
In a narrow, 1 1/2 quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil. Remove it from the heat and ad the chocolate. After a minute while the chocolate softens, begin whisking it until the chocolate is completely melted.
Place the saucepan over medium high heat and gradually add the milk, whisking to blend well. Cook the mixture until it comes to a full boil, whisking frequently. Lift the pan off the burner until the bubbles subside and bring it back to the boil two more times, whisking briskly. Lower the heat and let it simmer an additional 5 minutes. Turn off the heat.
To beat the chocolate the traditional way, position the molinillo or wire whisk in the center of the pot. Grasping the handle with both palms, rub it back and forth very vigorously for 2 or 3 minutes (or for as long as it takes) until the surface is covered with foam; otherwise, use an electric hand mixer or pour the hot liquid into a blender and beat/blend until the foam forms. Serve at once.
Variations:
- Vanilla-flavored — Split a vanilla bean, scrape out seeds and add seeds and bean to hot chocolate along with milk; remove bean before frothing. Or add 2 teaspoons vanilla along with milk.
- Spiced — Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt along with milk. Garnish with stick cinnamon.
- Sweetened — Add 2 tablespoons sugar along with the milk.
- Rich chocolate — Whisk 2 eggs. Once the chocolate is cooked, stir 1 cup of hot mixture into eggs, then add this to the saucepan and cook, stirring a few minutes. Proceed with frothing process.
Here's a modern, and much richer, version of the spicy, slightly bitter and peppery chocolate drink that the Mayans shared with the Aztecs. It comes from Judi van der Kaay of Cottage Grove, Ore., and can be found on a Web site that includes an excellent discussion of chocolate drinks: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/HotChocolate.htm.
Mayan Hot Chocolate
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 chile pepper, cut in half, seeds removed (with gloves)
- 5 cups light cream or whole or nonfat milk
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 1 to 2 cinnamon sticks
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate or 3 tablets Mexican chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons sugar or honey, or to taste
- l tablespoon almonds or hazelnuts, ground extra fine
- Whipped cream
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add chile pepper to boiling water. Cook until liquid is reduced to 1 cup. Remove chile pepper; strain water and set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cream or milk, vanilla bean and cinnamon stick until bubbles appear around the edge. Reduce heat to low; add chocolate and sugar or honey; whisk occasionally until chocolate is melted and sugar dissolves. Turn off heat; remove vanilla bean and cinnamon stick. Add chile-infused water, a little at a time, tasting to make sure the flavor isn't too strong. If chocolate is too thick, thin with a little more milk.
Serve in small cups and offer ground almonds or hazelnuts and whipped cream.
Here's a simple hot chocolate recipe that can be made with any semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate. Make a mocha version by replacing 1 cup of the milk with 1 cup brewed coffee. You can also flavor the whipped cream with a tablespoon of cold brewed espresso or chilled chocolate syrup, adding this at the soft peak stage.
Chocolate Cream
- 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 8 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 cups whole milk (or half and half)
In a chilled bowl, beat cream and sugar with hand-held electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Shave or chop chocolate, reserving 1 tablespoon for garnish. In a heavy-bottom saucepan, heat milk with remaining chocolate over moderate heat, stirring, until simmering. Pour hot chocolate into 4 large mugs and top with whipped cream and chopped chocolate. Serves 4.
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