Most cafés and bakeries serve hot chocolate—but what actually makes a good one?
The most common version is made with cocoa powder. This comes from cacao mass after most of the natural fat has been removed. On top of that, much of it is alkalized.
The result is the familiar profile: dark, bitter, and often mixed with unnecessary additives.
Then there’s the other approach—one you won’t find in most places: hot chocolate made from real chocolate shavings.
Bean-to-bar makers use shaved chocolate from their own bars. Because they work with small-batch, single-origin cacao, the focus is on expressing the character of each origin.
You know the bright and fruity, deep and earthy, nutty, floral, or layered flavors you can get from specialty chocolate—why not have that in your cup?
And then, of course, there’s the milk vs. water debate.
Among chocolate purists, there’s a common belief that drinking chocolate should only be made with water—that milk hides the flavor of the beans. In practice, that’s not necessarily true.
The character of the cacao still comes through clearly with milk, just in a different way: rounder, softer, and with more texture.
In the end, it comes down to balance. Even if you’re using chocolate shavings from a well-made, single-origin bar — carefully processed —, the way you prepare it matters. Use too much milk and too little chocolate, and you’ll lose the flavor either way.
So for my personal preference, here’s how I like it:
Chocolate shavings —nothing less than 30g per cup — milk, and a marshmallow (not the industrial kind).
