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The hot cocoa vs hot chocolate is our favourite holiday debate! Whether you’re curling up with a good book or enjoying your favourite Christmas movie, this beverage is a mainstay! Whether you are a fan of hot cocoa, or drinking chocolate, it is essential to know the difference- consider this a Christmas gift from us!
Hot chocolate
The solid chocolate (shavings, drops, or other solids) is melted in boiling water or milk to make a thick, hot drink called hot chocolate, often called drinking chocolate. Melted and mixed with hot milk, chunks or shavings of genuine chocolate—milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate, etc.—are the main ingredients in most recipes for Hot Chocolate. Spanish and Mexican hot chocolate are only two examples of the many national variations on the classic drink.
The classic drinking chocolate recipe calls for a cup of hot milk or water diluted with chopped chocolate and flavoured with hot cocoa powder. Most chocolate drinks had a gritty texture before modern chocolate was invented since the machinery to smooth out the chocolate was not yet available. While chocolate is more decadent and healthful, hot cocoa has been around longer.
Dark and milk chocolate are both used to make drinking chocolate, so it's easy to choose a healthy selection while shopping. While hot cocoa has many health benefits, drinking chocolate is not only more satiating and gratifying but also healthier (for the soul)!
Hot cocoa
The history of hot cocoa, which is both a drink and a drink mix, begins in the 1800s. Hot chocolate, mixed with sugar and coarsely crushed cacao beans, was once the drink of the aristocracy. A chemist from the Netherlands developed the first cocoa butter press in the early 1800s; it was a device that could squeeze out 50% of the fat from cacao beans. Cakes made of low-fat cacao were left behind, which could be ground into a chocolate powder. As a result of cocoa butter's rapid adoption by the cosmetics industry, cocoa powder became abundant but less profitable.
Cocoa powder was mixed with sugar by cocoa processors, who marketed the concoction as a therapeutic beverage. While sugar dissolved easily in liquids, the new powdered chocolate sunk to the bottom, according to customers.
Not long after that, the same Dutch scientists came up with a way to alkalise cocoa powder so it would dissolve more easily in water. Nowadays, big hot chocolate makers use what is now known as "dutching" as their normal procedure.
Hot Cocoa vs Hot Chocolate
There are a few important distinctions between hot chocolate and hot cocoa, two dessert beverages that share similarities such as sweetness and creaminess.
Ingredients
How the chocolate taste is derived from its ingredients varies. Melted solid chocolate with hot milk or cream makes hot chocolate. On the other hand, to make hot cocoa, you'll need to dissolve a cocoa powder foundation with some sugar in hot water or milk. Due to the inclusion of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar, the majority of commercially available hot chocolate mixes in grocery stores are hot cocoa rather than hot chocolate.
Be consistent
The thicker consistency of hot chocolate is often a result of the use of solid chocolate, which is already rich, dense, and fatty from the cocoa butter even before the addition of cream or milk. However, due to the addition of water or milk and cocoa powder, hot cocoa is thinner than hot chocolate.
Extra sweetener
The melting chocolate adds sweetness to hot chocolate. However, as cocoa powder is 100% cacao and naturally unsweetened, hot cocoa needs additional sugar or sweeteners to be palatable. So, you may expect a lot more sugar from your Hot Cocoa than from your Hot Chocolate. Making your own hot cocoa at home gives you more control over the sweetness level and kind of sweetener, making it a better option for those managing their sugar consumption.
Flavour Hot cocoa often tastes more like sugar and milk than chocolate, whereas hot chocolate may taste more like thick, rich melted chocolate, depending on the style. You can have both, and they're both tasty!