#perfect cocoa

[lunchcase]

Tim Hortons Chocolate Powder x Goat milk

Tastes normal. I actually think it’s sweeter than usual. This cements my suspicion that goat milk is perhaps not to be drunk on its own, and I have made a huge mistake.

[lunchcase]

Matcha Hot Chocolate

Inspired by Marianne telling me she microwaves her milk, and, with the potential I realised that has, I mixed hot chocolate and matcha powder together with hot water and created this new monstrosity. I told my mom, “this is a fine combination right? There are other things that have these two flavours. Matcha Kitkat!”, and she said, “sure”. She looked at it afterwards and said just the looks of it is already off putting.

It smells like a hot chocolate. It looks like a hot chocolate. For all intents and purposes, this is a hot chocolate.

Verdict: it actually tastes like a pale version of matcha kitkat!! This is how I imagine matcha kitkat would taste like if you melted it in hot milk, except a bit more watery. It’s good! It’s sweet, it’s chocolatey, and it’s got a hint of matcha to round up the flavours. Next time (there will be no next time, I apologise even though I know it's lies) I'll just add more evapourated milk.

[lunchcase]

17.12.2020

Munchique Chocolate (Not Bath) Bomb -  Special Guest Post Kathy Edition ft. Mostly Me

Location: gift from work

Price: gift from work

Kathy is in video call with me right now, with a fancy hot chocolate gift set given to her at her work, and she’s doing a live reveal + tasting to contribute to my humble blog. She didn’t want to write, saying she can’t replicate my flair and that’s why I’m the blogger and not her, and also I am right here to record it, so here I am doing the legwork. She’s currently fretting over whether she can use her roommate’s milk for her chocolate, the one who she said “she told me I can use whatever, but should I?”, and now she’s letting her know through text before she can begin. It’s been 10 minutes of this. Said roommate physically appeared and she asked in relief. The immediate response was “yes of course”. It’s been 15 minutes.

Kathy: I don’t know how representative of the chocolate bomb experience this is.

Me: I don’t need it to be representative of the chocolate bomb experience, I just need it to be representative of Kathy’s current chocolate bomb experience.

Kathy: I squished it in my bag

Me: that’s fine

Kathy: you really want this?

Me: I’m writing it down right now

Now she’s struggling with the packaging. (Kathy: don’t write that part down. Me: I already did). She’s graciously taking photos of “the squished thing” for me. I think it looks pretty nice, despite the squishiness! Festive, nice mug, good *original* decoration, a solid 10/10 presentation (kathy’s ranking, I incredulously asked if she was sure. She changed it to 9/10).

Me: are you going to use the mug?

Kathy: am I going to eat the mug?

Me: USE. *Use* the mug???? ??

Kathy: sure. But I probably won’t be using the chocolate spoons

Me: chocolate spoons??? I can’t believe you’re not using them, I bet they melt into the drink as it brews!!

Kathy: how much milk is too much milk

Me: whatever you think is enough and then double it

Kathy: mm :/

Kathy: I think I burnt the milk

Me: you need to keep stirring, and also it’ll froth and bubble up when it gets too hot so you have to remove it from heat when that happens or it’ll spill

Kathy: I think I burnt the milk

She’s putting the chocolate bomb into the mug and pouring hot milk over it. I would’ve put it in the milk itself but I guess there isn’t really a difference. She’s ladling the milk into the mug. I’ve always just poured it directly but this makes less of a mess. Galaxy brain.

Kathy: you ready

Me: okay first you have to smell it

Kathy: why. Okay I smelled it. Can I drink it now

Me: no you have to tell me how it smells.

Kathy: it’s like chocolate and milk.

Me: ugh

Me: I need to know more about how it smells

Kathy: like chocolate milk.

Me: Kathy

Kathy; it’s chocolate milk!

Me: does it smell good?

Kathy: does chocolate milk smell good?

Me: does it??

Kathy: yeah???

Me: warm? Rich? Strong??

Kathy; it’s not as sweet as I thought it would be. It’s nice

Me: I mean the smell, we’re still at the smell.

Kathy: smells like chocolate. And milk.

Me: oh my god

Kathy: that’s the best you’re going to get out of me

Me: fine okay the taste

Kathy: not as sweet, that’s a total good thing for me. It’s like, creamier with the milk, annnnnd, uh, chocolate milk.

Kathy: I think there’s a reason this is your blog and not mine

Me: is it a rich chocolate flavour

Kathy: *takes another sip* I think because I chose the dark chocolate bomb, the cocoa, you can taste it. It’s quite nice.

Me: what does it feel like

Kathy: a warm drink

Me: oh my god. Fine. Alright. Cool.

She is laughing. I’m pulling teeth here and she’s laughing

Me: would you recommend?

Kathy: yeah

Me: would you get it again?

Kathy: yeah

Me: would you give your mom this?

Kathy: yeah

Me: how about your dad?

Kathy: yeah. I would give Casey this

Me: if you only had one left and you could only choose to give it to your mom or your dad who would you give it to?

Kathy: *no hesitation* my mom

Kathy: my dad wouldn’t appreciate it as much. It would just be hot chocolate. (Later Me: Rereading this later I thought, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree)(I’m not scared of her reading this) My mom’s more of a foodie.

Me: same question, but adding me as an option?

Kathy: since you have a drinks blog, I’ll probably give it to you

Me: :) thank you

Kathy: my mom’s more of an all rounder than one specific thing

Me: are you saying I’m not well rounded

Kathy: I’m saying you’re very specific about what you write about

Me: fair

Kathy: Kathy has downed two cups of hot chocolate tonight! Hope this will make it into the blog. The first one was the carnation one and then the chocolate bomb. Though to be fair I didn’t think I was going to drink the chocolate bomb until I saw it was kind of smushed. There’s definitely a difference when you add milk versus when you add water. It’s creamier. But it’s also more effort, so you gotta find the balance. Depending on what kind of person you are. But then like I added water to the carnation one and I think maybe the ingredients made it so that milk was unnecessary, and that wouldn’t work on the chocolate bomb. I don’t know what the ingredients are. I don’t know what would happen if you add water to the chocolate bomb. It’s a ~ mystery ~.

Me: you can try. Also I think it would just make, you know, chocolate water.

Kathy: they’re both good in their own way. If I had to heat up milk everyday for it, I might go back to the carnation one. But the chocolate bomb is good for special nights when you want something fancy. The Carnation one is good for comfort.

Kathy: this is going to be a long post isn’t it. Try to be concise -

Me: hahahahaha

Kathy: - cut out what isn’t necessary -

Me: hagagagagagahahah CONCISE

Kathy: ...

[lunchcase]

A Journey to a Perfect Cup of Hot Cocoa

After Eight Hot Choco

Location: Walmart box set 

Price: $3.97 CAD

(Forgive the blurry photo. Also, my mug says “The Future is 20/20 In Sight”, and I bought it because it was on sale (ha) and also irony.)

It smells minty. It tastes... minty. This is mint chocolate but a hot mint chocolate, which I’m not that much of a fan of, but I quite like the chill mixed with hot choco. Hot and cold. Yes and no. In and out. Up and down. Wrong when it’s right. Black when it’s white. We Fight and break up. We Kiss and make up. Though I prefer Coffee Crisp and Turtle over this one, because while the chill is okay, I prefer the comforting hot sweetness that soothes my throat with warmth rather than mentholatum.

[lunchcase]

A Journey to the Perfect Cup of Hot Cocoa

Gourmet Village Hot Chocolate Double Truffle Powder

Powder in the mug

Boil ~ a cup of milk until it bubbles

Pour hot milk into the mug. Stir along the way.

I jumped, like 3 tiers up from previous and landed squarely on the above average, gourmet powder realm. Right off the bat, it smells amazing and the colour is a nice soft brown. It smells like the coziest night of the year. It smells like how burrowing under warm blankets on a cold night feels. It smells like a warm soft hug. Quite heavenly. The texture has a pleasing cohesion that shows it isn’t simply a watery liquid concoction, that it has the tenacity of milk. I especially appreciate the film of bubble on top that’s a slightly darker shade of brown then the body.

It tastes. So good. So milky. So sweet. Maybe a little too sweet? Definitely strong chocolate overtones.

Taste: 3.5/5, but that’s simply because I know this isn’t going to be the best attempt so I’d like to leave a little room for reference. The powder has the sweetness come with so no control over that, unless you want even sweeter hot cocoa.

Texture: 4/5. Exactly what a hot cocoa should feel. But I do wonder how it would feel if it was thicker.

Smell: 5/5. Heavenly.

Appearance: 4/5 I didn’t garnish it with anything (oh dang I have cream this time and FORGOT)

Mug choice: 5/5, love this mug, my friend Marianne got it for me for my birthday, <3, it’s an Up! Mug from Disney

Improvements: to this particular recipe? Using powder rather limits what you can do with it, I feel. I’m open to suggestions.

3.12.2020 edit: This post is timed to go up January 1st, so Happy New Year everyone! I don’t know what the pandemic will be like then, but hopefully it sucks less!