Hi Everyone,

I am offering chocolate drinks and I am struggling with the cold versions so I wanted to know if some of you have some good learnings to share.

For all my drinks I work from chocolate, not from cocoa powder (I want to keep that great cocoa butter). Now, to make a hot chocolate I have found a great way to do it (fast and sublime texture) but the cold chocolate is a bit trickier as chocolate doesn't melt at low temperature .

RIght now I am melting my chocolate in a bit of hot milk and then I use milk ice cubes in a blender to bring the drink to a cold enough temperature. However I am not fully satisfied with this process. Any better ideas?

Thanks for your input and ideas.

Olivier

updated by @olivier-l: 04/11/15 12:05:40

Oliver

I know you were asking about cold chocolate drinks but I am interested to know about your hot chocolate drink.

I make my hot drinking chocolate also with chocolate a ratio of 2.75 milk to 1 chocolate. I boil the milk and add the callets of chocolate.

This is fine when I re heat it using the wand in my cafe on the coffee machine you get a nice fraught top like a cappachino.

I have a chocolate dispenser but i'm not mad on it, the drink is served flat and also the cocoa butter start to float to the top after a time.

The problem is I know intend to serve the hot chocolate at markets and can oly use the chocolate dispenser or a soup pot.

How do your serve your hot chocolate?

Louise

Hi Louise,

I use different chocolates for my hot chocolates and so the ratio varies. In my case I don't premix so my customer can choose any type of milk (full, skim,...) and then the chocolate they want. I then use a steam wand as you do in the same manner as a barista would. I get a great texture and it's a very quick way to make hot chocolate.

If you have electricity at your market and can invest I'd recommend something like that: http://www.astramfr.com/steamers.html . Without electricity you could use a "Mexican molinillo" but it is a tiring task

I hope it helps.

Olivier

I've struggled for quite some time trying to figure out how to make a cold drink without using cocoa powder. The challenge is regardless of how I do it, the cold cocoa butter from the chocolate always imparts a waxy texture that I don't like.

If somebody has an epiphany of how to solve this without using cocoa powder as the flavouring agent, I would love to read about it too.

Cheers

Brad

Have you tried using only frozen milk, no water? I guess the more you can emulsify it the better as well.

Didn't matter what suspension medium I used. Cold cocoa butter is waxy and yucky. ("yucky" being a highly technical scientific term of course!)

Olivier

The web site link to the steamer is a great help. I have tried to find out the solution to this issue for a while.

Thanks

Louise

Hi Jason,

That sounds similar to what is done in Latin America ( at least Peru and Mexico). Probably a something the Philippines have inheritaded.

When you cool it down you don't have a separation from the cocoa butter and the water?

We don't do anything from a mix but we every few days create a new 'batch' up so that it's on hand and ready. If you're doing something cold you're going to need to make it from a heat source and then chill it. Shocking it though via quick icing has a number of poor ramifications.

Create your version and just chill it down through stirring and ultimately refridgeration. Unless your ratio of chocolate to cream or alternate milk source is so out of alignment that it create a sludge/fudge then it should stay pourable.

So how do you make your hot version? Just curious. And what is it that is not quite right with the cold version?

Thank you muchly, Olivier!

Olivier, do you think a steam wand would work with dense sipping chocolate [that has a Tbsp of something like corn starch or tapioca powder added to thicken it]?

Cheers! A

I think the best way to answer this question is to try it. Do you have a friend who has access to a steam wand? I don't know the density of your mix so it's hard to say. What I can say is that i get my best results (better than full fat milk) with what we call here "semi descremada" milk (1.5% fat). I am not sure the wand's heat is designed to texturize dense liquids but give it a try and share your finding with us.