Kitrusy’s Hot Cocoa Mix

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Containing a blend of cocoa powder, sugar and a touch of spices, this hot cocoa mix is the perfect addition to those chilly nights and as a bonus, it makes a great giftable treat option this holiday season!

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How Has Hot Chocolate Evolved Over the Years?☕

Dating back to around 500BC, the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations of Mexico are attributed to being the roots where this indulgent drink originated from. Created by mixing together ground cocoa beans, vanilla beans, chili peppers, and cornmeal with water, this thick drink would be poured back and forth between cups multiple times until it became thick and frothy before being served cold.

However, after this point, the history of the drink becomes a bit harder to trace, but allegedly, in the 1500s, Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés returned to Europe at the end of the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire, and brought with him his favorite drink, chocolatl – a cocoa drink flavored with spices and vanilla beans, that had been introduced to him by none other than the Emperor of Mexico himself. Soon the drink began to gain popularity amongst the wealthy Spaniards, who then began to alter the drink to suit their upper-class status by adding the much coveted ingredient – sugar, while using hot water to dissolve and combine them together.

The Spaniards supposedly coveted their prized drink for almost two hundred more years before it began to gain traction throughout Europe and whole businesses called chocolate houses were devoted to the drink. At the later part of the century, Irish botanist and physician, Sir Hans Sloane, while on a trip to the West Indies – known for their colonial cocoa estates – was served a local version of hot cocoa. However upon drinking it, he declared it “nauseating” and added milk to it in an attempt to make it more palatable, thus creating the modern day version of hot cocoa. This he took back with him to Europe where it was touted it as a medicinal drink. However, despite this historical credit, it’s worth noting that many of the native Caribbean peoples were known to brew a similar drink by boiling cacao with milk and cinnamon as far back as the 1400s.

Hot Cocoa -VS- Hot Chocolate

I’m sure you’re wondering “What’s the difference between hot chocolate and hot cocoa?” Put simply, Hot Cocoa is a drink made using cocoa powder, sugar and warmed milk. Hot Chocolate on the other hand is chocolate that is finely chopped and melted into warm milk to give a richer and thicker drinking experience.

💕Here’s Why You’ll Love This Recipe💕

• It is clean eating, gluten free and also vegan and vegetarian friendly.
• It comes together in less than 5 minutes. 🕐
• It gives you the option to combine the best of both worlds – hot cocoa AND hot chocolate!
• The ratios of ingredients  can be altered to suit your personal taste and preference.
• It makes a great and easy gifting option for the chilly winter season! 🎁
• It is easily scalable, you can make as much or as little as you need.⚖️

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Ingredients Needed For This Indulgent Hot Cocoa Mix

• Raw Cane Sugar: I’ve finely blended my raw cane sugar into a fine powder to make it easier to incorporate into our cocoa mix.
• Cocoa Powder: For the best results and flavor, use a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder. We love using Ghirardelli for it’s quality and affordability.
• Cornstarch: A small touch of cornstarch helps to keep our mix shelf stable for longer and also serves the dual purpose benefit of adding a touch of thickness when you add it to steaming milk.
• Salt: A pinch of salt goes a long way in adding depth to our hot cocoa mix by complementing and balancing the bitterness of the cocoa and sweetness of the sugar. We recommend using a Himalayan pink salt or sea salt if preferred.
• Espresso Powder: This optional ingredient is known for it’s ability of enhancing the richness and depth of chocolate flavors.
• Cinnamon Powder: A small touch of this warming spice makes your hot chocolate a little extra special without stealing the show.
• Ground Nutmeg: Freshly grated or powdered, a small touch of this warming spice complements all other flavors in our mix.
• Chipotle Powder: Optional, but a tiny pinch of chipotle is not just a call back to the origins of this chocolate drink, but it adds a small touch of warming heat that lingers in the throat and makes this mix truly special.
• Dark Chocolate Chips: Optional. To amplify the chocolate flavor and richness, you can also blend in some good quality dark chocolate chips. For the smoothest, richest, creamiest results, I highly recommend using chocolate that contains chocolate liquor (not to be confused with the alcohol chocolate liqueur. Chocolate liquor is simply a thick, potent paste of ground cacao nibs that contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter thereby giving any chocolate containing it an extra rich and smooth texture and flavor). Note: if vegan, be sure you’re using a dairy free dark chocolate

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Here’s How Easy This Hot Cocoa Mix is To Make

You can make two versions of this mix, one with just the dry ingredients or one with the added in chocolate that gets seamlessly blended into the mix.

To make the version without the chocolate, add all the ingredients together and mix them thoroughly until combined. It really is as easy as that!

To make the version with the chocolate added in, you can use a knife to break the chocolate down into as fine as possible bits, or if you have a bar of chocolate, you can shave curls off using a vegetable peeler to get them paper thin. Or you can use my preferred method and place all ingredients into a mini food processor to quickly and easily combine it all together.

Pulse for as many times as needed to achieve a perfectly blended mix. This will allow your chocolate to exist within your mix in secret, making anyone who has a cup wonder how you managed to infuse such rich, creamy flavor into it! It also ensures that your chocolate will dissolve easier as opposed to having chunks in it, a win for everyone!

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How To Use This Cocoa Mix (Directions for Use)

Warm 8oz (1 cup) of milk  or any dairy-free alternative of your choosing or even half and half if you prefer a richer hot cocoa, by either heating it in a saucepan on your stovetop until it begins to steam (but not simmer or boil) or by placing it into a microwave-safe cup and heating it for 60-90 seconds on high powder until steaming. Add two generous tablespoons of mix to your steaming milk and stir until the mix is fully dissolved.

If you like a frothier top, you can use a whisk or milk-frother to mix your hot cocoa. Enjoy your hot cocoa as is or finish it by adding a few drops of vanilla extract or topping with any preferred topping of your choosing.

How Can I Make This Mix Even Fancier?

Honestly this recipe is very forgiving and open to being altered to suit your personal taste and preference! It’s one of the reasons I like it so much. Here’s a few other things you can do to this mix:

• Make it a Darker Chocolate Blend: Play with the ratios and use more cocoa powder than sugar to create a truly dark blend of hot cocoa that highlights the intensity and rich bitterness.
• Make a Deeper Flavored Mix: Use a blend of cocoa powders. Different cocoa powders offer different levels of complexity from natural cocoa, Dutched cocoa powder, red cocoa powder, double-dark cocoa powder, black cocoa powder, etc.
• Make a Peppermint Hot Chocolate: Add a few drops of food-grade peppermint extract when you blend your ingredients in the food processor. The oil will seamlessly blend into and disperse throughout the mix.
• Make a Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate: Add a tsp of pumpkin spice to your mix. If you don’t have pumpkin spice, you can use 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon ground clove.
• Make a Gingerbread Hot Chocolate: To your cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch, salt and espresso powder, add a gingerbread spice blend consisting of 1/4 tsp cinnamon , 1/8 tsp ginger powder, 1/16 tsp white pepper, 1/16 tsp black pepper, tiny pinch ground nutmeg, even tinier pinch ground clove.
• Make it Richer: A great secret tip to making your mix even richer is to add 1-2 tbsp of heavy cream powder to the mix. When added to the milk the heavy cream powder will dissolve with the other ingredients and add an even deeper, richer layer of creaminess.

And there you have it, a simple and absolutely delicious homemade hot cocoa mix that is not just cheaper to make but is also customizable. Plus, it has the added benefit of containing both warming spices and a touch of dark chocolate to give you a hot cocoa drink that you will not soon forget. This is our favorite go-to drinkable treat when the temperature dips and the air takes on a chill, guaranteed to warm you up and give you a feel-good vibe, be sure you make enough of this mix to share with your friends and family this winter season! ☃️❄️☕