Alice Medrich Shares Her Tips for Making the Best Hot Chocolate

As the weather starts to cool down, it’s time to embrace some of our favorite drinks for the season. At the top of list, of course, is hot chocolate. Savoring a cup of the good stuff on a chilly autumn night can be a decadent experience, and although it may come as no surprise, making your best hot chocolate depends on a few factors. Whether you use water, milk, or a combination of both, the ingredients you choose will be the determining factors that can result in either luscious or lackluster. So we turned to Alice Medrich—a renowned author, pastry chef, teacher, and chocolate expert—for some tips on the preparing the perfect cup.

Milk or Water?

Alice Medrich Credit Annelies Zijderveld

When it comes to using milk or water, there’s definitely been some debate—and Medrich endorses the latter. “Water gives you more of the flavor of whatever cocoa or chocolate you’re using,” she says, “so over the years whenever I work on a recipe, make opinions about it, or experiment, I want to start with that.” If you want the hot chocolate to be creamy, you can add a bit of milk, cream, or whipped cream, she notes, which will result in the contrast of something really chocolatey against something really dairy. “Also,” Medrich adds, “It’s important to remember that people may not generally know much about cocoa.” In fact, when someone mentions natural versus Dutch-processed, they may know the difference at all.

Cocoa or Chocolate?

“Cocoa is like the cocoa bean, but instead of making chocolate out of it, they press a whole bunch of the fat out. What remains gets ground up—that’s cocoa powder. A lot of our cocoa powder has been alkalized or Dutch-processed, so it reduces the acid in the cocoa and changes the color,” Medrich explains. “People persistently want to say it just reduces the acid and makes the cocoa more mellow and chocolaty, but I don’t believe that. I know it does reduce the acid, but that interaction with the chemical changes the flavor and creates a whole new flavor, which some people love to a greater and lesser extent.” Medrich sites Oreos as one extreme version of that flavor but adds that a good Dutch-processed cocoa—when more moderately treated—delivers a nice flavor. “It’s less nuanced and complex than a natural cocoa.” But that doesn’t mean natural cocoa is without its own merits. “Similar to wine, when you start taking too much acid away, you start removing the characteristic that we prize in it; and these days, we have really good-quality natural cocoas that should be looked at so they don’t necessarily need their acid removed.”

No matter what you’re preference, Medrich says you should always have at least two cocoas in the pantry for baking and anything else you do with chocolate. “One of them should be a good natural cocoa, and the other should be a nice Dutch process, so then you have a choice—because there are two entirely different flavors that go on between the two,” she notes. “If you served a cup of hot chocolate made with natural cocoa and a good Dutch-processed one to a room full of people, people would be divided as to what they liked the best. Because the color, aroma, and flavor are all different.”

Guittard cocoa photo courtesy of Guittard

Styles of Cocoa

When it comes to stocking your pantry with both natural and Dutch-process cocoa, Medrich has a few suggestions. “The Guittard Chocolate Company has a nice Dutch process called Cocoa Rouge Unsweetened Cocoa Powder,” she says, “and they just released an organic natural one [Organic Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder]. The two of them would take care of almost every need.”

Scharffen Berger Cocoa courtesy of Scharffen Berger

She also recommends Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker as another solid option for natural—the 100% Unsweetened Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder—and mentioned the King Arthur Baking Company. The latter has two Dutch-process cocoas she likes—the Bensdorp Cocoa Powder and the Burgundy Cocoa.

When Medrich recently revisited making hot cocoa herself, she put a tablespoon of cocoa into 4 oz. of water, and after sampling it, she added a teaspoon of sugar. “A lot of times people will do equal parts sugar and cocoa, but that seems really sweet to me. With good cocoa, a good idea is to treat the hot chocolate the way we do a cup of coffee. If you want sugar in it, sugar to taste rather than have it be part of the ingredients automatically.”

European Style Drinking Chocolate

Since we’re blessed to live in an era of amazing craft chocolate, Medrich advises making a drinking chocolate too—it’s an enticing option. Thicker and richer smaller cups of hot melted chocolate are popular in Spain and France. Shares Medrich, “If there’s a chocolate people adore to eat, then that might make a lovely drinking chocolate. It’s so rich—it’s demitasse—so we can make this an elevated experience.” In fact, she offered to share a recipe of her own as an example. Adapted from Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales for A Life in Chocolate (Artisan 2003), and Seriously Bittersweet (Artisan, 2013), the beauty of this recipe, she explains, is that it takes on the characteristic of the chocolate that you’ve used so it’s a good way to taste craft chocolate.

“You may be surprised that the recipe calls for both water and milk, rather than all milk or even half milk and half cream. But for the richest and truest chocolate flavor—especially if you are using a distinctive chocolate—this is the way to go,” Medrich explains. “Less milk or cream, and less fat, allows us to taste more of the complex and subtle flavors that make one chocolate unique from another. Try this with your favorite chocolate, and you’ll see what I mean.” If you want a creamier or thicker concoction, she suggests you swap in some cream, but be aware that you might be missing some flavor. However, Medrich offers a great tip to avoid this: “For a thicker beverage, you can let the mixture stand overnight in the refrigerator—allowing the dry cocoa particles in the chocolate to absorb moisture and swell—then reheat before serving. If you do that, then you’ll get thicker hot chocolate without compromising flavor.”

Adding Spice

She may be a purist when it comes to drinking chocolate, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t open to experimentation or adding spice, including chiles. Says Medrich, “Dried Ancho chiles are also called pasillas. They are deep chocolate red and heady with an earthy musk. After seeing the film Chocolat, we came directly home for hot chocolate. From drawers and cupboards, little jars of dried ground chilis were unearthed from past bouts of Indian and Mexican cooking. Between sips of chocolate, we began to inhale from each jar. The Anchos beckoned…and we stirred pinches into our cups. Just enough to feel the heat. Try it!”

But don’t stop at chiles, Adds Medrich, “Following the ritual described for Ancho chiles chocolate, experiment with other spices, sniffing them to choose—anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, Chinese five spice, ground vanilla beans, pieces of dried citrus peel, or zest of fresh citrus. Spice blends will occur to you, as they have to me.”

Rich Hot Chocolate Recipe

6 ounces good dark (bittersweet or semisweet) chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 1/2 cups milk

Pinch of salt, optional, to taste

Place the chocolate in a saucepan. Pour about half of the boiling water over the chocolate and stir until it’s melted and smooth. Stir in the rest of the boiling water and the milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously, until hot but nowhere near boiling. (Both texture and flavor are best if the hot chocolate never exceeds 180 degrees.) Taste and consider stirring in a tiny pinch or two of salt. Serve immediately or set aside and reheat before serving. This recipe invites variations, so you can make it mocha by swapping half of the water for espresso or strong brewed coffee using only half of the water. Then add an equal measure of espresso or strong coffee with the milk.