Lounge
This monsoon, take a hot chocolate walk in the rain
Summary
The classic drink has many delicious variations, and who doesn’t love a warm cup of chocolate
Mumbai’s relentless monsoon becomes a tad gentler over a mug of hot chocolate. About three weeks ago, a motley group of food, media and fashion professionals went on a hot chocolate crawl in the city’s Bandra neighbourhood—it was World Hot Chocolate Day. It was led by chocolatier Prateek Bakhtiani and food consultant Shyamasree Romi Purkayastha.
The languorous four-hour walk had five pit-stops, starting with café Mokai, trailing through the resto-bar Bandra Born, café-cum-gallery Method, restaurant Nutcracker and ending at the Steps Cafe. At Mokai, Bakhtiani took the team through some basics of hot chocolate. There is more to it than powdered chocolate, sugar and milk, and a few ingredients multi-task as thickeners. As per Bakhtiani, there are three main types of hot chocolate—thickened with fat, like cocoa butter; thickened with sugar; and thickened with starch like cornflour or marshmallow. Hot chocolate with fat as the thickener caught on with Parisian hot chocolate trends at Angelian and Carette; the second variety has a prominent flavour of cocoa and tends to be more milky; and the third is quite popular in northern Europe and Italy, and is often referred to by its Italian name, cioccolato caldo. This format acted as the guiding principle as we sampled eight hot chocolates across five places.
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Mokai served a classic version with 70% dark chocolate and another topped with a cloud of marshmallow. Bandra Born had shot glasses with hot chocolate spiked with a dash of whisky that was a group favourite. It was a Christmas special item made specially for the crawl, and is not on the menu now. Method offered a warm cup of the sugar-thickened version that hit the spot. Nutcracker laid out a feast with three flavours, classic, hazelnut and orange, each thickened with starch. The last, at Steps Cafe, was a sweet surprise. It was a cold version of hot chocolate that somehow didn’t taste like chocolate milk shake. “With cold chocolate it’s important to control the amount and type of fat used in the hot chocolate, as fats can crystallise and harden at low temperatures. It is recommended to opt for a sugar-based cacao hot chocolate when serving it iced," explained Bakhtiani. By the end of the walk, I realised hot chocolate thickened with starch can be tricky and not many get it right. At one place, it tasted like Cerelac, whereas those thickened with sugar were more enjoyable.
While it was not part of the crawl, Starbucks does a good job of this style and one can take it notches higher by sprinkling cinnamon and coffee powder. Other recommended places in Bandra for hot chocolate are Subko café, Veronica’s and Suzette. For those not in this neighbourhood, order a hot chocolate mix. A colleague is a fan of the Cosmix My Happy Gut X Hot Chocolate, and another recommends the hot chocolate cube from Smoor. Any chocolate that you eat can be used to make hot chocolate, says Bakhtiani. He prefers a 64-78% dark. If you’re craving an indulgent drink, here’s his recipe for Bourbon cioccolato caldo.
Ingredients: 80g 70% dark chocolate; 280ml milk; 25ml maple syrup; 1 tsp cornstarch; 1 to 2 shots rum/ bourbon (optional)
Method: Make a slurry with the cornstarch and a few spoons of the milk. Chop up the chocolate and place in a small saucepan. Add enough milk to almost cover it and heat on very low heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted. Little by little add the remaining milk. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry and thicken to desired consistency. Whisk in the alcohol and garnish with your choice of toppings, These could include whipped cream, grated chocolate, cinnamon stick, cocoa powder, maraschino/amarena cherries, orange peel twist or marshmallow.
