The Colombian Secret to a Properly Good Hot Chocolate

There’s one thing we take particularly seriously around here.

A really good hot chocolate.

Our hot chocolate flakes are made with Colombian cocoa and designed to melt into hot milk to make a rich, smooth cup of proper chocolate – no watery powder here!

But we’ve learnt over the years that how you make it matters almost as much as the chocolate you start with.

And for that, we take a little inspiration from Colombia, where culturally, everyone starts their day with a comforting mug of 100% dark hot chocolate.

Meet the molinillo

In Colombia, hot chocolate is traditionally prepared using a wooden whisk called a molinillo. 

It’s rolled quickly between the palms of your hands while the chocolate is warming, creating that wonderful layer of froth on the top. It might look like a rather beautiful old-fashioned kitchen utensil, but there’s actually some clever science behind it.

Chocolate naturally contains cocoa butter, (in other words, fat) which doesn’t automatically want to mix perfectly with milk or water.

As the chocolate warms, the cocoa butter melts. Whisking it vigorously breaks everything down into tiny droplets and helps the melted chocolate and milk come together. At the same time, the molinillo draws little bubbles of air into the chocolate.

That’s where the glorious froth comes from.

So while the science behind it might involve words like emulsification and aeration, we prefer the simpler version:

Warm it gently. Whisk it properly. Get lots of air into it. And don’t stop until it’s beautifully smooth and frothy.

And what about the jug?

The molinillo is only half of the traditional Colombian hot chocolate set-up. The other half is the Olleta – the tall metal jug the chocolate is made in. And its shape is rather clever.

An olleta is usually tall and relatively narrow, giving the milk and chocolate plenty of depth for the molinillo to work in. As the mixture heats, the liquid naturally moves around the jug, helping the chocolate melt evenly.

Then comes the vigorous whisking.

Because the jug is tall rather than wide and shallow, there’s room for the chocolate to swirl, rise and froth without immediately decorating you, and the rest of the kitchen in chocolate. Which, given how enthusiastically a molinillo is used, is quite important!

Traditional olletas can also have a narrower opening or slightly shaped upper section, helping contain some of that movement as air is whisked into the chocolate and the froth builds. So the two work beautifully together:

The olleta gives the chocolate somewhere to heat, move and froth.
The molinillo does the whisking, mixing and aerating.

It’s wonderfully simple, but there’s a surprising amount of clever thinking behind a cup of Colombian hot chocolate.

Can you do this at home?

Absolutely. You don’t need an olleta or even a molinillo to make a fabulous hot chocolate, although we’re very fond of ours.

Warm your milk gently, add your Choc Affair hot chocolate flakes and give them time to melt.

Then whisk. And we mean really whisk.

A small hand whisk, milk frother or electric whisk can all help create that lovely smooth texture and frothy top.

The important bit is not simply stirring your flakes into hot milk and calling it done. Give the chocolate a little love, and you really will taste the difference.

And we know it works…

Because this is exactly how hot chocolate is made at Chocolate & Co, the York charity café co-founded by Choc Affair founder Linda.

Linda set up Chocolate & Co to create supported employment, volunteering, training and a place of belonging for people who have faced barriers in their lives, due to addiction, homelessness or being part of the criminal justice system.

And when you’ve spent nearly 20 years making chocolate, there was never much chance of opening a café and serving an average hot chocolate.

So Chocolate & Co makes its hot chocolates using Choc Affair Colombian chocolate and a traditional molinillo – whisked properly until they’re gloriously smooth and frothy. They’ve become something the café is rather known for.  

And we love that there’s now a little thread running all the way from the cocoa grown in Colombia, through the chocolate we make here in York, to a cup of hot chocolate being whisked at Chocolate & Co.

One chocolate. Two York businesses. And rather a lot of purpose behind both.

Make yours the Chocolate & Co way

Next time you open a pouch of Choc Affair hot chocolate flakes, don’t just stir them in.

Warm. Melt. Whisk. Froth.

Then sit down and enjoy a proper Colombian-inspired hot chocolate.

We promise you, there really is nothing quite like it!