Instructions for making the perfect hot chocolate:
Directions: Get enough milk to make your hot chocolate and put it into the microwave until its hot. While this is being heated, pour a shot of Baileys and three teaspoons of chocolate powder into each mug and mix together to form a paste. Lick the spoon (this is the best bit, Baileys and chocolate, mmmm). Once the milk it hot, pour this into the mug (see how easily it mixes, aren't you glad you made that paste - no chocolate powder glued to the bottom of the mug). Now drop a big dollop of whipped cream on top and grate some dark chocolate on top. Serve with good music and a log fire.
Hot Chocolate, of course, was also the name of the band that gave the world the legendary disco hit 'You Sexy Thing'.
The group was formed in 1969, their first project being a reggae version of 'Give Peace a Chance - they changed the lyrics slightly, but John Lennon gave his permission, and so the cover version was released. In 1970, they signed a record deal and recorded the single Love is Life, which went to a number 6 on the charts. Band members changed frequently during the first years, although center point remained lead singer Errol Brown with the shaved head. Their first name was 'The Hot Chocolate Band', which was quickly shortened.
Hot Chocolate went mainly for singles in their first years, and their first album wasn't released until 1974. 'You Sexy Thing', their greatest and longest-living hit, was released in 1975 and made it to the top of the charts. In fact, from 1970 to 1984, the band had at least one hit every year. Other well-known songs include 'It Started With a Kiss' and 'Everyone's a Winner'
In the semi-interesting trivia section, we note that Hot Chocolate was actually invited to the pre-wedding reception of Charles and Diana at Buckingham Palace in 1981 alongside heads of government and European royals. Sources say nothing about performing, but the likelihood that they were singing 'You Sexy Thing' is not overwhelming.
Errol Brown left the group in 1985, and the band stopped recording at about the same time. Brown resurfaced in the early 90s as a solo artist, and in 2001, he released the album Still Sexy.
Discography from All Music Guide: 1974 Cicero Park 1975 Hot Chocolate 1976 Man to Man 1978 Every 1's a Winner 1979 Going Through the Motions 1980 Class 1982 Mystery 1983 Love Shot (+ an endless series of compilations and boxes)
Sources: http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/h11z.html http://www.errolbrown.com http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/9855/Hot.html http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B18322 And thanks to Saige for making me add the discography.
People often imagine that switching to a vegan diet (or otherwise avoiding dairy products) would mean missing out on chocolate, but it needn't be so - there are many good vegan dark chocolate bars around, in fact, and there are also several interesting vegan variations on the hot chocolate. Indeed, the hot chocolate consumed by the Mayans and Aztecs hundreds of years ago - quite bitter, often with chillies - was probably vegan. More in keeping with today's style of chocolate-drinking, hot chocolate turns out to be one of the things soya does very well; you can easily make a rich hot chocolate with soya milk (or oat milk) in place of cow's milk. Hot chocolate made with oat milk and soya milk mixed together, with brown sugar or maple syrup and plenty of cocoa powder, is at least as rich as anything that can be made with cow's milk.
To make a tasty, nutritious and filling food drink which is just on the sweet side of savoury, mix chocolate and hazelnut spread* with tahini and treacle or dark sugar and fine oatmeal, perhaps adding a little pear juice or apple juice, and heat it in a cup in a microwave or a pot on a low heat until it is just boiling, then heat it for about a minute and a half or so in the microwave (for a big cup), or simmer it for a couple of minutes on a hob.
To make a very satisfying hot chocolate drink without any milk or soya (or using only a little), mix together cocoa and cinnamon and perhaps some other sweet spice - nutmeg, cloves, cardamom - or a few drops of hazelnut oil or toasted sesame oil, with syrups like malt syrup and/or maple syrup and a little treacle, until you have a good thick paste; then add hot water. Optionally, coffee can be added (in which case you should leave out the treacle) or indeed tea - which makes a kind of chocolate chai. Stir well until the ingredients are good and mixed.
* Which of course is not always vegan, but there is a very good brand of organic vegan fairtrade chocolate and hazelnut spread called Chocoreale, and I'm sure there are various other kinds...
Most amusing is the heated debate between the Roman Catholic Church and Mexican parishioners over the propriety of drinking chocolate in church. Chocolate had enough regard for its medicinal properties that ladies attending church claimed that drinking it during church services kept their frail bodies awake during long sermons and staved off fainting spells. Church officials, however, viewed the sybaritic drink as an indulgence, and most importantly, a violation of the fast laws. The issue eventually escalated all the way to the Vatican, which shrewdly resolved the matter in 1662, when Pope Alexander VII proclaimed that liquids did not break the fast.
Most people don't know how to make hot chocolate from cocoa properly. While if you are making hot chocolate from hot chocolate powder, you can just slop it into a mug with some milk and microwave it, this approach will not work for cocoa, or for cold chocolate. to do things properly;
As Oolong notes, the Aztecs and the Mayans were the original chocoaholics, and whilst in the West we are used to chocolate being a sweet food they almost exclusively used the cocoa bean in combination with maize, water and chillis in order to make a spicy, bitter drink which thy called xocolatl (see Lometa's excellent Chocolate writeup). Unfortunately, I do not have the recipe for this - however anyone who has ever eaten tamales, a Mexican dish, will have a fair idea of what it might have tasted like.
Instead, I can provide you with this simple recipe, passed down through generations of Europeans and adapted to the needs of a population with an obscene sugar habit. It differs from those above in not requiring any fancy equipment such as microwaves, although I suppose one of these could be used if you don't mind the flavour adulteration and the extra effort involved. It is far simpler and better to make it in a saucepan, either at home on the stove or in the great outdoors over the campfire. The only other thing you need is a spoon.
Nowadays, the best hot chocolate-mix in the world comes from Mexico - the stuff in hard crumbly blocks with a flavour more complex and delicious than anything Nestlé could ever dream of. Unfortunately, this can be a little hard to come by for those of us not in the Americas, so if you're not in a position where you can just walk down to the local milk bar and pick up a packet, try this instead. I think it's a fairly good imitation, but then again it's a long time since I was in Rosarita.
Ingredients for two:
When it comes to serving, the septics have the right idea: plop a marshmallow in there for maximum goodness. Although I admit this can be a bit too sweet at times.
The best idea is to make a huge cauldron of the stuff and let it sit on the stove all night, keeping at just the right drinking temperature.
One of the beauties of hot chocolate is it dresses up or down as nice as you please.
It's the comfort of plain old swiss miss cocoa powder and mini-marshmallows for sitting around in flannel jammies while snowed in. (But it's still better with milk than water.)
It's made class of real chocolate or cocoa with a shot of fine liquor topped in hand-whipped cream to finish off a dinner party.
It's anything in between.
Lately, flavored hot chocolate mixes have been big on hitting the market. Older versions include double chocolate, mint chocolate, chocolate with hazelnut, and "latte" chocolate and vanilla. Newer flavors include Irish cream flavor, raspberry cocoa, cherry cocoa.
Lovely things to add to cocoa from your spice cabinet: mint of any kind cinnamon or cinnamon stick nutmeg
Lovely things to add to cocoa from your liquor cabinet: baileys Irish cream Godiva of any flavor or creme de cocoa rumplemintz or other peppermint flavor Chambord Kirsch
Cocoa for a cold:
I've used this recipe many a time when a sore throat was just setting in. It eases the pain a lot and sometimes even staves the cold off entirely. Peppermint oil, it appears, is good for the throat and lungs. Two or three mugs at the onset has kept me from getting sicker several times.
Boil water. (This is the ONLY time I use water for instant cocoa--the oils are not properly soluble in milk.) Put mint of any kind (fresh or dried) in a teabag and steep until the water is a dark green color and there is a thin film of natural oil atop the water. Squeeze the teabag until no more water runs out.
Add two packets of instant cocoa and stir. Dissolve whipped cream or marshmallows in as desired.
For a numbing-of-the-pain effect and to smooth out the earthy flavor a bit, you can add a capful (about 1/3 shot) mint schnapps and creme de cocoa. (Don't use your good stuff, liquor or cocoa. It doesn't make that much of a difference.) This brew, however, is quite effective and tasty without the alcohol as well so don't go out of your way to get it if it's not at hand.
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