You can’t fail to have noticed that it’s been fairly arctic so far this winter. At the Neptune Bar Hire Co., we believe that there’s almost nothing nicer than shutting the front door against the wind and rain, making some luxuriant hot chocolate and snuggling under blankets with your loved ones in front of a cheesy Christmas film.
However, we’re not talking any old hot chocolate! You can’t just have a tin of Cadbury’s drinking chocolate or a sachet of Highlights. Oh no. We’re talking a full-on, make-it-in-a-pan-with-milk-and-chocolate, decadent hot beverage. If you’re not sure how to do that, Neptune Bars, as always, has your back. Read on for some inspiration!
The Classic One
Classic Hot Chocolate: You will need 300ml of whole milk, 40g of chopped chocolate (dark is much better for you), 2 teaspoons of boiling water and a tiny pinch of sea salt. There are also optional extras, such as cream, vanilla extract and rum. If you use vanilla extract and cream, you shouldn’t need extra sugar; however, if you’re using dark chocolate, you might need the additional sweetness, depending on the cocoa percentage of the chocolate.
The ingredients can also be swapped out for healthier options. You can find the Great British Chefs’ recipe, plus read about the history of how hot chocolate came into being, here –
The Spicy One
Spiced Hot Chocolate: Follow the above recipe, but add in a generous pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and a couple of cloves for that taste of Christmas. You could even add the tiniest pinch of chilli for a palate kick – be stingy with it or your chocolate will be hotter than you bargained for!
The Fresh One
Peppermint Hot Chocolate: Follow the above recipe, but add in a few drops of peppermint extract. This can be tricky to get right; you don’t want to feel as though you’re drinking a cup of gloopy chewing gum, so experiment to find your ideal taste! You could also pop a couple of After Eights in and let them melt … or it might be safer to serve them on the side!
Of course, if you’re a real hot chocolate aficionado, you will probably have a Hotel Chocolat branded ‘Velvetiser’ - they even do their own flavoured sachets of chocolate and we can reliably inform you that ‘velvetised’ hot chocolate is absolutely divine (we are currently enjoying the Mince Pie flavour!).
It’s quite the thing these days to have a ‘hot chocolate station’, particularly if you have kids and their friends are coming over. Don’t panic about this - it just means putting out lots of different toppings and accompaniments and letting them choose their own. Whatever you do, don’t forget the whipped cream, marshmallows and hundreds and thousands!
Thank you for reading our blog; whether you have used our mobile bar services, followed us and liked our posts, or even made an enquiry, Mat and the Neptune Bars team are grateful for your support this year. If you would like to talk to Mat about hiring a mobile bar, please do email him - info@neptunebars.co.uk
Stay safe and have a very Merry Christmas - we will see you in 2023!