Spanish Hot Chocolate – The Ultimate Churros Companion
When chocolate meets Spain, magic happens in the most unexpected way. Spanish conquistadors brought cocoa beans from Mexico back to their home country in the 1500s, adapting the Mayans’ version by adding sugar, and eventually Spanish hot chocolate became so thick that people dip churros and other pastries in it. Unlike the watery versions we’re used to elsewhere, this isn’t just a drink – it’s practically edible.
Spanish hot chocolate works so well as a dipping sauce because it is thicker than normal hot chocolate, with authentic recipes including a pinch or two of cornstarch to thicken it up. For special days, breakfast is chocolate con churros – a cup of thick, hot chocolate alongside a plate of golden, crispy churros, with the hot cocoa generally served between 75°C and 80°C in a porcelain cup. The Spanish have turned breakfast into an art form, and honestly, the rest of the world should take notes.
Austrian Viennese Hot Chocolate – Decadence in a Cup
In Austria, decadence flourishes when it comes to drinking chocolate, and nothing is considered “too rich” – Viennese hot chocolate is made with melted bittersweet dark chocolate, whole milk, sugar, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream as a topping. But here’s where it gets interesting: they add an egg yolk to make everything richer and thicker. It’s like someone decided regular hot chocolate wasn’t luxurious enough.
After whipped cream is added to the top, Austrians will add a little shaved chocolate as garnish, and during Christmas, rum is added to give it a boozy grown-up kick. As perhaps the most exquisite version of drinking chocolate, Viennese hot chocolate is enjoyed all year round, though it’s quite filling so you need to leave room for this drink. The Austrians understand that when you’re going to indulge, you might as well go all the way.
Italian Bicerin – The Perfect Three-Layer Symphony
This authentic Bicerin cocoa and coffee drink from Turin, where the beverage was invented, is the closest you can get to the real thing – it’s a coffee and chocolate beverage that requires careful timing to create properly. The beverage must have three temperatures and three layers: coffee, cocoa, and a thick head of frothed milk, with the coffee made simultaneously with the hot chocolate and then the frothy milk added.
Making a good bicerin isn’t just mixing three random ingredients – the chocolate is made with selected cocoa from sustainable agriculture in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Brazil and Indonesia, with slow cooking in special copper pots pushing natural aromas and lowering acidity. Al Bicerin became an iconic place for prominent figures like Alexandre Dumas, who found it contemplative, and Umberto Eco, who included it in his novel “The Prague Cemetery,” and it represented a symbolic stage for artists such as Giacomo Puccini. This isn’t just a drink – it’s a piece of Turin’s soul in a small glass.
Mexican Hot Chocolate – Ancient Traditions with Modern Twists
Modern-day Mexican hot chocolate is quite popular and based on the original cocoa drink created by the Mayans and adapted by the Aztecs, mixed with milk, sugar, and cinnamon, with the cinnamon addition incorporated by the Spanish who had trouble sourcing vanilla and used it as a replacement. The Mayans knew what they were doing thousands of years ago, and their legacy lives on in every cup.
Anthropologists believe the Olmecs of Mexico were the first to use the cocoa bean, but the first written acknowledgment came from the Mayans, who revered cocoa as sacred and holy, mixing honey, water, and spices like chili pepper with cocoa to enhance flavor and texture. Frozen Mexican hot chocolate is growing in popularity and can be spiked with a boozy twist, while baked goods like Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes have that traditional flavor in finger-food form. It’s fascinating how a drink that started as ceremonial has evolved into something we can enjoy in countless ways today.
Filipino Sikwate – The Backyard Chocolate Experience
There are two main versions of this drink, known as Tsokolate de Batirol in Luzon and Sikwate in Visayas and Mindanao, with tsokolate-eh having a “thick, velvety texture” while tsokolate-ah is more of a “watered-down chocolate drink”. The drink can only be described as velvety and is wildly popular throughout the islands, with many Filipinos having their very own cacao trees growing in their backyard and processing the beans by hand.
Cacao isn’t native to the Philippines – Spanish colonists brought it to the area about 300 years ago, and it’s now planted across the archipelago, including in many people’s backyards. There’s something beautifully simple about walking outside, picking cacao beans from your own tree, and turning them into a morning drink. It’s the kind of connection to your food that most of us have completely lost in our modern world.
Colombian Chocolate con Queso – The Surprising Cheese Addition
In the Andes, this drink made with dark chocolate, queso fresco or mozzarella, panela (unrefined sugar), cinnamon, cloves, water or milk is a staple for breakfast or teatime, usually served with cheesy breads or arepas for dunking. Yes, you read that right – cheese in hot chocolate. Before you wrinkle your nose, remember that we put salt on caramel and nobody bats an eye.
The cheese doesn’t melt completely; instead, it creates these delightful little pockets of creamy, salty richness that play beautifully against the sweet chocolate. It’s like someone took everything comforting about breakfast and decided to put it all in one cup. The panela adds a molasses-like sweetness that’s completely different from regular sugar, making this a truly unique experience that challenges everything you thought you knew about chocolate drinks.
2024 Global Competition Winners – The Craft Revolution
The 2024 World Craft Hot Chocolate Competition winners were unveiled during a live ceremony at SIGEP in Rimini, Italy, on Tuesday, 23 January, by The International Chocolate Awards, with the new Craft Drinking Chocolate competition receiving over 150 entries from chocolate makers all over the world. SLOK Chocolate from Hong Kong won multiple categories, including “The Best Hot Chocolate Made With Water 2024” with their Chuncho, Peru 72% scoring 91.1, while Fjak Chocolate from Norway won “The Best White Hot Chocolate in the World 2024” with their White Caramelized with Brown Cheese 36% scoring 90.9.
Scores of 80 and above indicate fine chocolate quality while scores above 90 suggest extraordinary quality and craft. The Craft Drinking Chocolate competition celebrates the work of small chocolate makers working with the best cacao to create outstanding chocolate drinks made with traceable origin cacao and chocolate, judging drinks, chocolate preparations, cocoa powder mixes, infusions, products made from cacao pulp or fruit and alcoholic drinks made with chocolate or cacao. It’s incredible to see how artisanal chocolate makers are pushing boundaries and creating drinks that would make ancient Mayans proud.
