WHAT MAKES A PERFECT CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE? Lecinqblog style!



YUMMY FROTHY HOT CHOCOLATE

 In the US ,it is simply called HOT-CHOCOLATE .In some other countries they call it COCOA.

In recent years too many variations have occured to the original simple recipe.

For me, the plain ole SIMPLE recipe tastes the best.
 No additions ,no toppings whatsover!

In this above picture what you see is a VEGAN HOT-CHOCOLATE.
The above picture was taken in 2009.
2009 was my second holiday season after having gone vegan.
I vaguely remember that I became vegan sometime in august or september of 2008.

The older non-vegan recipe that I MADE prior to 2009 used a bit of Animal breast milk to add to the richness.
But, this one?  100% PLANT PRODUCTS and I am being VERY HONEST here when I say that IT TASTES BETTER.

For one, it doesn't smell of something "body fluid" like and it is tastier too.(people who drink animal milk on a regular basis might not be able to appreciate the OFF SMELL of animal milk.But once you go vegan for a long time, when you attempt to drink animal milk once again, your nose clearly tells you about the off smell )

This HOT CHOCLATE has the perfect balance of lighter notes where you need it and the rich notes where you need it and This hot chocolate is fragrant on its own without the addition of any cinnamon at all!

WHAT MAKES A PERFECT HOT-CHOCOLATE?

1/ It must be served in a large cup and very hot.
Just to compensate for the cold weather outside and also a large serving keeps you hydrated in the cold(yes cold weather dehydrates you too) ..(Btw, apparently it is summer in some countries in december? blah,folks from those countries, just drink it hot anyways will ya? :) )

2/It must made from cocoa powder rather than those PROCESSED YUCKY PREPACKAGED SYRUPS. Use a good quality un-adulterated cocoa powder,k?

3/The final hot chocolate must not be too gluggy or thick , nor must it be too thin...Somewhere in between is just the right thing,k?

4/It should not be too sweet.The charm of a hot chocolate is for us to appreciate the slight bitterness and the aroma of the cocoa which btw is MESMERIZING.

5/Try and froth your hotchocolate during preparation..The froth kinda oxidizes stuff and brings out an added layer of taste.(must like coffee)

6/This above vegan hotchocolate DOESN'T contain any soymilk.According to me, soymilk INTERFERES with the chocolate taste.

7/DON'T add any spices .ruins the chocolate experience

8/DON'T add any marshmallows(which btw are melted animal hooves!) .again,they just ruin the pure chocolate experience.

POSTNOTE: Recipes not included due to plagiarism concerns.I device and design my own recipes all the time and I am saving up all recipes for a FUTURE VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK.

(Interested Cookbook publishers/food magazines/book agents/TV production houses , Please quote a valid office postal address and phone number along with your work email while sending a proposal to me.I regret to say that I am unable to respond to people contacting me with no OFFICIAL postal address or office phone number)

TAGS:HOT_CHOCOLATE,BEVERAGES,HOT_DRINKS,COCOA,HOLIDAY_DRINKS,VEGAN_HOT_CHOCOLATE

Homemade soy yogurt rocks

yeah, yeah, I made the soy yogurt myself from homemade soymilk..Yeah, yeah, i made the soymilk myself(didnt use a soymilk maker either--I did the original authentic muslin cloth technique)..
And then ofcourse, typical of my style..Made some rich cocoa flavored soyyogurt...It rocks..Tastier than any yogurt i have ever eaten so far..It is so soothing too.yay to me

The glory of Dark Chocolate/Bitter chocolate

What exactly is bitter chocolate?..Well ! It is cocoa nut paste in its purer form..where the butter it has got is the cocoa butter in more or less its natural percentage and with not that much of added sugar.You must understand that cocoa paste is very bitter, so, unless any sugar is added to it, It will remain bitter and may not be edible as a chocolate bar or a snack.Cocoa does have natural butters aka the cocoa butter.Natural cocoa paste has a different percentage of cocoa butter in it from what the actuall cooking chocolate has.Any chocolate bar irrespective of whether it is cooking chocolate bar or eating chocolate bar, essentially has a different percentage of butter and cocoa from natural cocoa bean paste.That is because, cocoa paste is first sepearated to its cocoa powder and cocoa butter components first and packaged off for seperate use.While making the chocolate bars, these ingredients are remixed again in a different proportion and packaged.Cooking chocolate has re added cocoa butter in a different percentage so that the chocolate bar is more stable at room temperature.
Now that i have given a simple insight into food chemistry and food technology, let us get back to bitter chocolate.
Pure cocoa has considerable amounts of caffeine which is deemed a stimulant.It also had a lil bit of other substances which are stimulant in some way too.Cocoa also is deemed to be cardioprotective too. It could be by virtue of the caffeine per say or by virtue of the other substances which are antioxidants .
Having said that, lot of people mistake milk chocolate to be beneficial to the heart and such.WEll, milk chocolate or the other commercially available edible not so dark chocolates have very high quantities of refined sugar in them, not to mention the added preservatives since milk has been added to make the milk chocolate and will go bad if there are no preservatives..The percentage of original cocoa butter is not as high as there is substitution with added animal milk butter instead of the cocoa butter in milk chocolate.So, milk chocolate is not healthy.
Bitter or dark chocolate in comparison is definitely healthier .Dark chocolate has a rather aquired taste appeal though.It is bitter and sometimes if it almost 80% cocoa, it is medicinal tasting to some palates ..LOL..but i am a great fan of Bitter chocolate,,Love it to death.