A watercolour of a mug of dark hot chocolate with a dusting of cinnamon on the surface
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Mexican-style hot chocolate

Spiced hot chocolate

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 24 months, set by Cinnamon (ground).

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
2
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.5 L
Active
5 min
Total
7 min

Ingredients

Cocoa powder is bitter and does not dissolve in hot liquid, it clumps and floats. The fix takes thirty seconds and is the whole recipe.

Make a paste first. Cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and salt with a tablespoon or two of cold water, worked with a spoon until it is a smooth dark paste with no dry pockets. Only then add the rest.

  1. Whisk the milk powder into 450 ml of cold water.
  2. In the pan, make the cocoa paste with a splash of that liquid.
  3. Add the rest gradually, stirring, then bring to a bare simmer. Do not boil.
  4. Chilli flakes in for the last minute, then strain them out or leave them: either is correct.

The salt and the chilli are both doing the same job: stopping it being flatly sweet. A pinch of salt in hot chocolate is not a gimmick, it is what makes the cocoa taste of more.

Serves 2.

What this was adapted from

Mexican-style hot chocolate: cocoa with cinnamon and a little chilli

  • fresh whole milk and a chocolate tablet → milk powder, cocoa and sugar

    A tablet of Mexican chocolate is cocoa, sugar and cinnamon already combined, and fresh milk does not keep. Building it from powder gives you control over the sweetness and weighs a fraction of what the liquid would.