Hello!


I would like to talk about the most important and controversial political topic of today: hot chocolate.

1) Do you prefer milk or water?

I mix my cocoa powder with milk. It has to be lactose free milk, though. Different brands of lactose free milk each has their own taste - from watery to sweet. So using lactose free milk gives an inconsistent taste, but it still gives a more rich flavour than using water. Water is just too bland for me.


2) What do you top your hot chocolate with?

I personally use marshmallows. It's sweet, it's fluffy, it's pleasant in just about every way. Don't use dehydrated marshmallows. Those are really dry (even after adding it to the beverage), hard, and stick to the teeth. It's basically the opposite of regular marshmallows.

I want to try whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Which type of chocolate would you recommend for this?


3) Which milk alternatives work best with hot chocolate mix?

I'm not vegan, but the stores nearby don't carry lactose free milk. I need to hoof it a good distance just to find the type of milk I use. There's a lot of competition for this type of milk, so the supermarket is often out of it. I'm thinking it might be easier to use something other than milk.

1. Water. I already get used to it from drinking protein powders. Most of the flavour is already inside the sugars or artificial sugars with the cocoa chocolate notes.

Lactose-free milk already has the lactase enzyme in it. The simpler sugars (glucose, galactose) that comes out of this makes it too sweet for me, personally.

2. None for me, it's already sweet enough.

3. Personal trial and error. I like the taste of almond milk, personally. It should be in nearly every supermarket and warehouses. If you've got some nut butters, you can make your own nut milk at home too. I also enjoy the addition of some maple syrup if I have a sweet tooth that day.

1. Good point


3. I'll give almond milk a try, thanks.

Milk, cocoa from the high Andes of Ecuador, honey, date and maple syrup, topped with vanilla ice cream. La Dolce Vita ((--;))

Top: Nothing... Sometimes the butter floats to the top. "Butter?" you ask. Why, yes, Melt some butter in the pan with hot pepper and/or ginger and/or cinnamon (etc), then build the rest of your milk-based drink around that base. Once in a great while, I'll put on some chocolate shavings I guess.

Alternate: Coconut milk. Because you need the fat content. even if you're not doing butter. Sometimes some of the milk is replaced with cream (never all of it, or even half)... but that's the opposite of what you need. Almond milk has worked. Rice milk has not. Soy milk does not. I have yet to try oat milk and suspect it might, since they often have a lot of carrageenan.

Water?: You can use some water in the base to start the sugar dissolving and to cut it some, but at least 50% should be milk and not just water. Well, unless you're using a pre-mixed powder that assumes you're making with water, in which case they planned for that (by using powdered milk to reconstitute with hot water).

EDIT: Sometimes substitute malt powder for some of the sugar. When doing that, starting with some water as a base for dissolving is necessary.

EDIT2: I guess adding booze (cordials) counts as "top"? So amaretto, creme de menthe, etc...

I also forgot to mention coffee pairs well with hot chocolate too. Drip-brew dissolved with hot chocolate powder or instant coffee dissolved into your hot chocolate. It also works well with protein powders and baking anything chocolate.

Lies. The only things coffee pairs well with are toilet water and psychos. And maybe its close relatives, gasoline and kerosene. Why would you ruin perfectly good beverages with that junk? Try bags of lactose-free powdered milk? And follow the reconstitution directions.

We want to see the world burn and this is our way of contributing to that. Everyone should join our chocolate-coffee cult, we're not all that bad.

Not as bad as the cereal-OJ or the ketchup-and-ice-cream sister cults, anyway.

That sounds delicious. I'll have to try it some time, thanks! A lot of great info here, thanks! Yes, booze counts as a top. I love coffee and chocolate combined. I'll try this soon, ty! That's a great suggestion. It's probably easier to store and preserve, too. Cereal & OJ does have an efficiency thing going for it. Instead of consuming them separately, you finish both in one go. This is great advice, thank you!

I use whatever liquid but NEVER EVER ready made mixes like Ne****ck or O'**y.

Stir cocoa powder and sugar/honey/other sweetener and some fat, if needed (if none in liquid) with some liquid, usually water at this point, bring to boil in the microwave oven and pour cold liquids on top and stir till all dissolved. Back in the microwave if warmer wanted but myself I never drink anything piping hot.

Oatmilk works, at least the one called 'barista' or some such, marked as suitable for adding to coffee.

Almond milk is yummy but expensive but then with the asking price for milk here it is not that much more.

A little coffee in chocolate is good, same with a little chocolate in coffee but half and half does not work in my opinion.

Alcohol... only a tiny amount if any. Of course, you may think the only way to make chocolate drinkable is by adding ten parts gin to each part chocolate...

ADD: Oh, I forgot: Vanilla... a tiny pinch of my self made vanilla sugar (tiny bits of real vanilla in powdered sugar where it has been for weeks) may go in but never that foul white chemical they sell in the shops.

Place in my area does a chunk of chocolate in the drink, whipped Cream, marshmallows, cocoa powder, pop rocks, chocolate syrup.

Excuse me but what is 'pop rocks'?

It's a carbonated candy that makes popping sounds as it dissolves and releases it's carbonation. It comes in several flavors.

Ta!