4 Things You Might Not Know About Hot Chocolate
vector hand drawn lettering quote – all we need is love and more hot chocolate with and decoration elements – brunches, stars, swirls and flowers.
Chocolate in its hot beverage form is wonderful and you can get one of the best tasting hot chocolates direct from your UKVending drinks machine. So we thought we’d have a look at some of the most surprising and interesting facts about hot chocolate, here are four of the best things we discovered.
The charmingly named Chocolate houses emerged across Britain in the 17th These establishments became all the rage as they served drinks alongside, other, less seemly goings on in Georgian England. Hot chocolate was served in large, ornate pitchers made out of gold, silver and porcelain.
During Mexico’s Revolutionary War soldiers fighting for both sides had hot chocolate given to them as part of their ration packs. Medics treating the wounded and indeed the dying would often offer them the solace found in a cup of hot chocolate. When money got tight for the Government some of their soldiers were even paid in hot chocolate.
We are used to American Presidents having big personalities and sometimes strange habits. Well America’s third president Thomas Jefferson was a huge fan of hot chocolate having bought his first supply in 1775. Such was his devotion to his favourite drink that ten years later he wrote to John Adams about hot chocolate he wrote: “ “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the preference over tea and coffee.” Today, visitors to Monticello can sample hot chocolatemade the way Jefferson liked: using stone-roasted cacao, sugar and spices.
Hot Chocolate versus Hot Cocoa? Yes there is a difference between the two. In the USA if you ask for a hot chocolate you may get any hot drink made with chocolate ingredients. If you ask for Hot Cocoa however you’re getting a different drink. Let me explain. Cocoa powder is ground up cocoa that has had the natural fat removed. This is done naturally or mechanically in a system known as ‘Dutched’ that subjects the powder to potassium carbonate invented by Dutch chemist Coenraad Jan Houten, hence the term Dutched. He also laid claim to invented cocoa powder in 1827 and made drinking hot cocoa popular. Hot Chocolate, meanwhile, is made with shaved or ground cocoa that still has its full fat content intact.