Delicious Hot Chocolate

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On cold days such as this, even a full two months after christmas, my love of hot chocolate comes to play. I love adding different ingredients to my hot chocolate, such as nutmeg or a dash of vanilla extract. In the past I’ve used peppermint extract, different seasonings, and even gone so far as to mix an assortment of cocoa powders together. I was completely surprised when I stumbled upon a bottle of pumpkin spice in my local Korean grocery store. Pumpkin pies are near impossible to find in South Korea. Koreans love making pumpkin soup (juk) in the fall, but expats struggle to find pies, with the only reliable source being Costco. A dash of pumpkin pie spice in almost any hot chocolate mix tastes amazing, trust me. Another spice I found was gingerbread spice. I’ve tried gingerbread spice in hot chocolate on multiple instances and have never been disappointed. With gingerbread spice, one just needs to be light-handed or else it can be overpowering.

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My favorite mix to use is, of course, Swiss Miss. I use it so often that I buy the large can version instead of the packet version. I’ve even been able to find the can here in Korea. I like to offset the sweetness of the Swiss Miss with the bitterness of Ghirardelli unsweetened or dark cocoa powder, in a 2:1 ratio.

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*On this particular attempt, I didn’t have any Ghirardelli so it was omitted and I was out of Swiss Miss so I used the next best mix, Hershey’s.*

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Recipe

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3 tbsp (30 g) hot chocolate mix
1 (~1-2 g) dash ground cinnamon
1 small pinch of ground nutmeg
3-4 (exactly) drops of vanilla extract
1 (~1-2 g) dash gingerbread spice seasoning (optional)
2 cups (~300-400 ml) hot water

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1. Mix the hot chocolate and the various seasonings together in a beautiful cup that does justice to the taste of the hot chocolate.

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2. Add 2 cups (300-400 ml) of hot water.

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3. Top the drink with as many marshmallows as you wish.

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4. Enjoy your delicious hot chocolate!

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*Add more hot chocolate mix or use milk instead of water if you want the drink to be thicker. In the US, there are special flavors of marshmallows, such as candy cane, gingerbread, etc., but the original flavor is by far my favorite!

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