Hot cocoa, thick drinking chocolate and Mexican-style hot chocolate with cocoa powder, shaved chocolate and a stone-ground chocolate disc

Hot Chocolate vs. Drinking Chocolate: The Complete Guide

Published 8 min read

Filed under Other Chocolate Mexico

“Hot chocolate” covers everything from a thin mug stirred up from powder to a cup so dense it is close to warm chocolate sauce. Two people can order it and receive drinks that seem unrelated. The difference is what went into the cup: cocoa powder, melted chocolate or stone-ground chocolate.

Three names, three drinks

Everyday usage overlaps, and no single definition separates the terms. This guide uses them this way.

Hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder, sugar and milk or water. Hot chocolate is the broad term, covering cocoa drinks and drinks made with melted chocolate. Drinking chocolate is made substantially from chocolate itself, not from cocoa powder alone.

What cocoa powder is

Cocoa powder begins with cacao beans that have been cured (fermented), dried and ground. The resulting chocolate liquor contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Removing part of that cocoa butter leaves material that is pulverized into cocoa powder.

Because part of the fat has been removed, cocoa powder disperses into liquid without the richness of melted chocolate. A mug of cocoa can taste deeply of chocolate and still drink light.

What drinking chocolate is

Drinking chocolate is made from chocolate itself, shaved, ground or chopped fine so it melts into hot liquid. Chocolate contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter, plus sugar in any sweetened bar.

That cocoa butter changes the texture. Melt chocolate into milk and the drink becomes rounder and more substantial than one built from partly defatted cocoa powder alone. Suspended cocoa particles add body, and whisking works the melted cocoa butter into the liquid. With enough chocolate and little enough liquid, the cup turns almost custard-like.

Dandelion shows that thickness is concentration

Dandelion Chocolate makes its single-origin chocolate from cocoa beans and sugar, with no added cocoa butter, lecithin or vanilla.

Its House Hot Chocolate Mix (shop Dandelion House Hot Chocolate Mix) uses 70 percent Camino Verde, Ecuador chocolate as its base and is designed to be whisked with milk, cream or a dairy alternative. Dandelion suggests less milk for a richer European-style cup, or coffee or espresso for a mocha.

The same mix makes a light cup or a dense one. The milk decides which.

Dick Taylor and the European-style cup

Dick Taylor's Peppermint Drinking Chocolate (shop Dick Taylor Peppermint Drinking Chocolate) is mixed with crushed pieces of natural peppermint candy. Dick Taylor describes it as a rich and velvety European-style drinking chocolate.

A serving is a quarter cup of the chocolate, whisked into about half a cup of steaming milk. That small volume suits the drink. Rich drinking chocolate sits better in an espresso cup or a teacup than in a diner mug, where the last third turns into work.

“European-style” is not one recipe shared across Europe. Dandelion ties the phrase to using less milk. The shared idea is concentration, so the ratio in the cup says more than the label.

Chocolate was a drink long before it was a bar

The history runs opposite to the modern grocery aisle. Cacao was consumed in beverages for centuries before molded eating chocolate existed.

Archaeological evidence places cacao use in what is today Ecuador more than 5,000 years ago. Later Mesoamerican societies developed elaborate cacao-drinking traditions with social and ritual importance, and enjoyment of cacao was largely restricted to Maya and Aztec elites.

Early cacao drinks were not modern hot cocoa

Pre-Columbian cacao drinks were somewhat bitter, Penn Museum's Expedition magazine notes, and flavored with chili peppers and corn gruel as well as honey, flowers and vanilla. Foam mattered. Penn describes foam raised by pouring the drink from one vessel to another, and a bride offering a foamy chocolate drink as part of a marriage rite.

Once the Spanish added sugar and cinnamon to the bitter drink, it spread through Europe as a luxury. By the eighteenth century, special pots were being made for chocolate service. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds one by François Thomas Germain, dated 1765-66, and a miniature by David Clayton from about 1720-30.

Milk or water

Penn Museum's Expedition magazine notes that water, not milk, is the more traditional liquid for a chocolate drink.

Water is still a fair choice in a modern kitchen. A chocolate drink made with water tastes more directly of cacao, and milk adds sweetness, fat and body. For an intense craft drinking chocolate, start with mostly milk and a little water. If the cup feels heavy, raise the water next time before cutting the chocolate.

Other milks, and cream

Whole milk gives more body than skim, but the chocolate supplies plenty of fat itself, so a chocolate-heavy cup stays rich with a lighter liquid. Oat milk gives good body. Almond and other nut milks bring their own flavor. Coconut milk changes the identity of the drink entirely.

Cream is optional. With a good dark chocolate, too much cream mutes the cacao. For more body, add chocolate or cut the liquid first, and save cream for when creaminess is the point.

Making drinking chocolate from a bar

A dedicated mix is not required. Finely chop a dark chocolate bar worth eating on its own. Heat milk until steaming, take the pan off direct heat and whisk in the chocolate gradually, returning it to gentle heat if needed until smooth. If the bar is sweetened, taste before adding sugar.

For a rich cup, begin around 2 ounces of dark chocolate for 6 to 8 ounces of milk. That is a starting point. For a dense European-style cup, add chocolate or cut the liquid, and for a lighter American-style drink, add liquid. A 55 percent chocolate and an 85 percent chocolate will not produce the same sweetness at identical ratios.

Chop finely because smaller pieces have more surface area, so heat moves through them faster and more evenly. Large chunks leave the milk overheating while their centers melt. Callets, fèves, shavings and ground drinking-chocolate mixes solve the same problem in different shapes.

Heat and the whisk

Bring the milk to steaming, not a hard boil. Milk proteins and sugars catch on the bottom of the pan, and long high heat gives cooked flavors that cover the chocolate. Use moderate heat and stir.

Whisking disperses the chocolate and works in a little air, turning a heavy melted mixture glossy and cohesive. An immersion blender gives a more uniform result for large batches. For one or two cups a hand whisk does the job.

Mexican-style hot chocolate is its own branch

Mexican chocolate is more than hot chocolate with cinnamon. Its processing, texture and flavors follow a different tradition.

The molinillo

A molinillo is a carved wooden whisk traditionally used to foam chocolate drinks in Mexico and Central America. The handle is rolled rapidly between the palms, spinning the lower carved sections through the liquid.

Smithsonian collections include historical molinillos, and a 1930s example was shown in the exhibition “Mexican Treasures of the Smithsonian.”

To use a stone-ground disc, break it into pieces, warm milk or water, add the chocolate and whisk until dispersed. A molinillo is made for building foam, though an ordinary whisk works.

Cocoa powder has its own uses

Cocoa powder and drinking chocolate solve different problems. Cocoa powder gives strong cocoa flavor with less fat than melted chocolate, and unsweetened powder leaves the sugar to the cook.

Valrhona's cocoa powder is sugar-free, so it can become hot cocoa with the sweetness set entirely at the stove.

Natural and Dutch-process cocoa

Cocoa powder may be natural or alkalized, also called Dutch-process. Alkalization raises cocoa's pH and changes color and flavor. Valrhona says its Dutch-processed powder has “a very warm red mahogany color.”

In a drink, either works and the choice comes down to taste. In baking, the difference can affect chemical leavening, so substitutions need more care.

Better hot cocoa from powder

Dry cocoa dumped into a pan of cold milk floats in pockets. Stir the cocoa with the sugar and a little hot liquid into a smooth paste first, then add the rest of the milk or water gradually.

Salt, vanilla and spice

A pinch of salt can sharpen chocolate and keep sweetness from going flat. Stop short of tasting salt. If the chocolate or mix already contains salt, taste first, and keep flaky salt for the top of the cup when occasional crystals are the aim.

Vanilla rounds a chocolate drink, and it also makes different chocolates taste more alike. For a single-origin chocolate, make the first cup without it.

Chili peppers went into pre-Columbian cacao drinks and cinnamon into the Spanish one. Cardamom, black pepper and allspice work too. Pick a spice deliberately, because every warm spice at once blurs the chocolate.

Coffee

Chocolate and coffee overlap in roast, bitterness and aromatic intensity. Add espresso to finished hot chocolate for a mocha, or replace part of the liquid with strong coffee. With an origin-driven chocolate, taste one cup plain before adding coffee.

Percentage and origin

No single percentage wins. Fifty to sixty percent makes a sweeter, softer cup. Seventy percent suits serious drinking chocolate. Eighty-five percent and above may need extra sugar or milk.

The percentage says how much of the chocolate comes from cacao ingredients. It says nothing about how the chocolate tastes.

When a drinking chocolate has few ingredients, the cacao underneath comes through, and fruit, nut, floral, caramel and earthy notes can survive into the cup. Dandelion makes its hot chocolate mixes from single-origin chocolate, so the drink can show where the cacao came from and how it was processed.

Hot chocolate for a group

Use a heavy saucepan and scale the recipe by weight. Make it slightly thicker than the target and adjust with hot milk just before serving. Hold it over very low heat, stir regularly and do not leave a dairy-based pot simmering unattended for an hour.

A thermos or insulated server is more forgiving than a pot on the flame.

A three-cup tasting

Make three small cups: cocoa powder with milk, dark chocolate melted into milk, and a stone-ground Mexican-style chocolate. Taste texture first, then sweetness, then cacao intensity. Fifteen minutes of this teaches more than another page of definitions.

The cups do different jobs. Cocoa powder gives flexibility, a lighter body and control of sweetness. Shaved or ground drinking chocolate gives the richness of cocoa butter. A single-origin mix keeps the cacao in front, and stone-ground Mexican chocolate brings texture and foam.

The simplest serious cup

Finely chop a 70 percent dark chocolate. Heat whole milk until steaming. Whisk the chocolate in until glossy and add a small pinch of salt.

Taste. Too intense, add milk. Too thin, add chocolate. Short on sweetness, add sugar.

Browse the chocolate collection.

See also: the homemade hot chocolate mix recipe.

See also: drink gift basket ideas, with a two-chocolate basket for winter evenings.

Sources & Further Reading

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