The weather outside may be frightful, but cuddling up with a cup of superb drinking chocolate brings warm satisfaction, day or night. Imagine a satiny slide of melted bits of real chocolate, warmed in milk or cream and stirred with a dash of vanilla, a dab of sugar, a pinch of orange zest, a smidgen of cayenne, or whatever you like. That’s drinking chocolate.
Askinosie Chocolate, of Springfield, Missouri, offers a single-source sipping chocolate from Cortés, Honduras, year-round. Make a cup of hot goodness when the snow flies, or craft a chilled chocolate sip for summer. During the holidays, look for specialty drinking chocolates such as peppermint bark and gingerbread—an extra fillip of holiday cheer.
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Milk Chocolate Caramel Drinking Chocolate reigns supreme at VanBuskirk Artisanal Chocolatier, in Cottleville, but the dark chocolate variety is gaining ground with customers. VanBuskirk offers drinking chocolates packaged to take home or mugs made fresh at the chocolate bar.
For a Mexican spin on drinking chocolate, pick up Nestlé Abuelita chocolate tablets and cinnamon sticks at Global Foods Market in Kirkwood. The round disks—made of chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon—cook up as sweet as a childhood dream. Don’t forget to whisk the drink and add a cinnamon stick to each steaming cup.
One more way to make drinking chocolate: Chop up a 3-ounce chocolate bar, such as Bissinger’s 75 percent dark bar. Warm 4 cups of whole milk to a low simmer, whisk the chopped chocolate into the warm milk, add a tablespoon of mild honey and a teaspoon or two of vanilla, and enjoy. (Hedonists might consider doubling the chocolate and halving the milk.)
