Hot Chocolate is one of my favorite parts of winter. I love drinking it on a cold winter day to get warm. It is simple, delicious, and warms you through to the core of your body.
Many people use the words, “hot chocolate” and “hot cocoa” interchangeably, but they are actually different! According to Aneducatedpalate.wordpress.com, hot chocolate is made with milk; the chocolate melts as the milk is heated. Hot cocoa is made with water, a little bit of milk, and cocoa powder. The cocoa powder is made by extracting the rich cocoa butter from the ground cocoa beans. Hot chocolate is typically richer, creamier, and more substantial than hot cocoa due to it having cocoa butter.
You can pick up your very own hot chocolate on a stick from Made by ME in the MARKET. All you have to do is heat a mug and add the chocolate on the stick. The chocolate instantly melts into a delicious cup of hot chocolate and the homemade marshmallow rises to the top. Not only can you buy this to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate for yourself, but it also makes a wonderful gift!
You can also buy a cup of ready-made hot chocolate from Poppy’s Cafe. If you want to get creative at home with your hot chocolate, BuzzFeed has some great ideas. A few of our favorite include:
- Add some peanut butter to your hot chocolate because when has adding peanut butter to anything ever been a bad idea?
- Melt white chocolate instead of milk or dark chocolate. Add some lemongrass and lavender for some extra flavor
- Use nutella as your chocolate flavor and melt 2 tbsp in 1 cup of milk
- Add some peppermint!
- Add some baileys!
- Add some crushed oreos to the bottom!
I’ll leave you with some fun facts about the history of hot chocolate. According to mentalfloss.com, the Olmec civilization in southern Mexico was the first to roast the fruit from the cacao tree. They ground it down and mixed it with water and other ingredients such as cornmeal and chili peppers. Archaeologists hypothesize this because they have found Olmec pottery with trace amounts of chocolate dating back to 1700 BC. The Olmec passed the drink on to the Mayan civilization, which passed it on to the Aztecs. To make the mixture of water and cacao nib paste frothy, the mixture was poured back and forth between two bowls or jugs. When Cortes conquered the Aztecs, he brought the drink to Spain and it spread to Europe and America. Thomas Jefferson raved about the drink in 1785. It is unknown when the beverage started to be served hot, but sources say that hot chocolate was served warm during World War I for its healing properties.
Just as it did long ago, hot chocolate continues to provide energy, nutrients, and warmth. Grab yours from the MARKET this week!
