How lovely to look out the window and see snow, here in ATL! It's not quite sticking at the moment, but my kids did manage to scrape some ice off the car to make ice balls and smash each other with it.
My five year old son gathers some ice to make an ice-ball, seconds before hitting me in the face with it.
Anyways, what better way to warm up their red ice-y faces and hands than with a cup of hot chocolate? (I promise this post isn't a sponsored ad for Godiva or something!)
I’ve actually been thinking about hot chocolate a lot lately - not just because of the snow - but because I like chocolate, and I like hot drinks.
And since this is 285 South, I started wondering how hot chocolate is made around the world. A few fun facts I learned after some time (I won’t tell you how much) doing online “hot chocolate research.”
There are records of Mayan communities consuming a hot drink made with cacao beans thousands of years ago. The beans were dried into a paste, mixed with hot water and cornmeal, and sometimes spices like vanilla or chili, and the whole mixture was poured back and forth in a vessel until it was nice and foamy.
In good old fashioned colonial style, Spaniards brought chocolate back to Europe with them in the 1500s. They added sugar to their chocolate drinks, and later, the British added milk. And as we all know, this sugary milky hot chocolate monopolized what most people know of hot chocolate!
In Colombia, hot chocolate is also consumed with cheese mixed into it. Not cream cheese though, cubes of cheese (queso freso, queso campesino, or even mozzarella). Here’s a great write up and recipe. I reached out to two Colombians I know to learn more - they both drank this type of hot chocolate and both used a chocolatera to make it in. I also learned that the altitude- and the weather in Colombia - makes a difference in the frequency that the drink is consumed.
And then there’s “Mexican hot chocolate” - which, presumably, is a derivative of the ancient Mayan drink. For some reason it's hard to spot on a Mexican restaurant menu, and easier to find in places like Cafe Intermezzo. I have to admit, I love the kick of chili in chocolate, but I had a suspicion about the whole thing. Do people drink “Mexican hot chocolate” in Mexico? Why is it hard to find in Mexican restaurants?
I reached out to a business owner I’ve met at a Mexican cafe in Plaza Fiesta.
“Which place has the best chocolate caliente in Atlanta?” He responded a few hours later - “I’m sorry but I don’t know, it’s one of those things that are better done at home.”
Of course. It’s as if someone (non South Asian) asked me where to get the best chai in Atlanta. Chai (just like daal), duh, is best made at home, poured into a cup as soon as, or right before (depending on who you ask), it starts to boil over in the pot.
He sent me a link to a google search for “receta del chocolate abuelita.” I clicked on the first video. Maria Carlos, who has over 800K YouTube subscribers, looks directly into the camera, preparing the viewer for the recipe. I would need a tablet of Abuelita (made by Nestle, with chocolate but also with signatura Nestle additives like soy lecithin), milk (she chose non-dairy), cinnamon sticks, and hot water.
The box of Abuelita tablets I bought from the local Latin super market. They're also available at Walmart.
I did some additional research. Recipe after recipe for “Mexican hot chocolate” specified the need for a molinillo- an ancient wooden whisk used by the Mayans. I wanted to do this as "right" or as authentically as I could, so I drove to the closest Latin supermarket and bought a box of Abuelita chocolate tablets, some dried chili peppers, and queso fresco (in case I wanted to try any of the other recipes at a later date). I asked the woman at the cash register whether they sold molinillo. She shook her head, “no.”
I could just order a molinillo on Amazon, but that felt lame and unnecessary. I’m a good person who supports small businesses in the midst of the pandemic, a voice inside pleaded.
Surely a shop at Plaza Fiesta would have a molinillo. I mean, from my online research it seemed everyone everywhere was using molinillos. I wandered around the plaza, scanning for any stalls that had kitchen items. I asked a woman selling juices if she knew where I could find a molinillo. She took me to a man working at a stall across from hers.
I followed him to the other side of the plaza and through a narrow strip of clothing and jewelry stalls. At the end of it was a woman selling wooden handicrafts- everything from maracas to small dolls to tiny bowls of fruit made of clay. She disappeared into the back of the stall, rummaging through boxes of wooden items. Nope, she didn’t have it.
I came home slightly defeated. Yes, I had Abuelita tablets, water, milk, and cinnamon (powder, not sticks though). But I didn’t have the molinillo. I watched Maria Carlos’s video again. To my surprise, she didn’t even mention one. I looked at the Abuelita package instructions - no mention of the wooden whisk either.
I made the hot chocolate - following Maria Carlo’s instructions as best as I could.
The Abuelita tablet, right before I dropped it into the pan. I also noticed it has the word "Abu" in it, which means dad in Urdu. Hi Abu!
The foaminess of her hot chocolate came not from any whisking, but just from boiling it until it was all bubbly and serving it immediately afterwards. I did the same, and added a pinch of crushed dried chili pepper in homage to the ancient drink (which my 7-year old promptly removed after discovering a piece in his cup!). It was very sweet, a bit grainy, and definitely more flavorful than the hot chocolates my kids are used to. And, it was very, very hot. Both kids sipped it slowly with spoons.
Enjoy the snow - and maybe a hot chocolate today :)
Azi sips the sweet and grainy hot chocolate.
