I can’t say with even the remotest degree of historical accuracy that ancient cultures made hot spiced drinks in winter but it’s a fairly certain bet they mixed up something with punch for whacky ceremonies as well as sitting around fires on chilly nights. Drinking chocolate with a kick is something you really should be doing when the thermometer takes a dip, especially if you find yourself around a great blazing bonfire trying to stay warm wearing an ugly Christmas jumper and a funny hat.
Whether you use melted bars thinned with cream or ready-made syrup, drinking chocolate is hard to screw up as long as your ingredients are quality versions. When you get dairy and cacao together they’re going to satisfy. To make them even more festive, I add two key ingredients: chile and cinnamon. The former from the New World and the latter from the very, very Old World. When Montezuma was sprinkling chile on his breakfast cereal, Cleopatra had already been stirring cinnamon into her puddings for centuries.
Even if you don’t make a cup of this from scratch, just a pinch of cayenne and the same of cinnamon whisked into pedestrian drinking chocolate will have your taste buds in a warming winter tizzy. I’ve experimented with ginger and cardamom, citrus and mint, and all the other usual holiday spicing suspects. While some of those might help mulled wine along, the creaminess of chocolate really doesn’t suffer any of them that well in a hot drink. And while nutmeg will work, it’s best saved for your eggnog in my mind. If you’re trying to lubricate a crowd, make vats of this stuff and park it in your slow cooker to stay warm for a few hours at a go.
Spiced Holiday Drinking Chocolate
70 grams of quality chocolate bar, flake, powder, or syrup
800 ml whole fat milk
200 ml 18% fat cream (aka “single cream”)
scant 1/4 teaspoon cayenne chile powder (or more to taste after sampling)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 tablespoons dark rum, brandy, or similar (optional and of course to taste)
Yield: 2 x 500ml mugs – recipe may be multiplied many, many times. In the snow if necessary.
Warm everything except the optional booze over a medium-low heat being careful not to scorch. Whisk almost constantly until smooth and slightly frothy. Decant into mugs warmed separately under hot running tap water. Add any desired alcohol and serve immediately. Avoid using the microwave to ensure even melting and so your whisk doesn’t feel neglected
