Hot choco­late is to skat­ing rinks what hot dogs are to ball parks, and with the plethora of out­door rinks in this city, tot­ing your own ther­mos along for the slide seems a no-brainer. Sitting on a wooden bench, warm­ing up with a mug of cocoa after an hour or so on an out­door park rink is an iconic Canadian image. Many rinks sell hot choco­late, but a lot of what is served out there is instant, which is about as close to the real thing as instant cof­fee is to fresh brewed.

Making your own at home and bring­ing it along gives you more options; you can choose the milk, the type of cocoa, make it out of soy or nut  “milk “ and of course you can add a lit­tle some­thing extra for the grown ups. There are other hot bev­er­ages avail­able too, like Milo and Ovaltine, but many of us find that these are like edu­ca­tional toys, the hot choco­late equiv­a­lent of Sunday School.

When choos­ing a cocoa, a “Dutched” cocoa such as Fry’s, named after Englishman Joseph Fry who started mak­ing­choco­late in 1759, will result in a more mel­low drink. Dutch style cocoa means it has been processed with an alka­line solu­tion which results in a darker but milder cocoa. A non-alkalized cocoa, such as Hershey’s retains more of the cocoa’s acidic qual­i­ties; slightly lighter in colour and not as mel­low. Again, this may be a mat­ter of taste, and I can think of worse ways to spend a chilly after­noon than hav­ing a hot choco­late tast­ing party!

Here’s how to make the per­fect hot choco­late, of course you can adjust the quan­ti­ties of sugar and cocoa depend­ing on your taste.

Fill ther­mos with HOT water.

1) Put cold milk in a heavy bot­tom saucepan. Allow a 12 oz. mug per serv­ing. Turn heat to medium high.

2) Add two table­spoons of sugar for each serving.

3) Add 1 heap­ing tea­spoon pow­dered, unsweet­ened cocoa per serving

4) Whisk con­stantly while cocoa heats up to sim­mer­ing, mak­ing sure milk does not scald. Cocoa will be light and frothy. Remove cocoa from heat.

5) Empty heated ther­mos of water and add cocoa. Immediately seal.

Notes:

Constant whisk­ing not only keeps the cocoa from scald­ing and makes the bev­er­age lighter and more frothy, it also helps to dimin­ish the thin “skin” that often appears when heat­ing milk. Do not be overly off-put by this mem­brane, it is just the casein and beta pro­teins com­bin­ing with the fat molecules.

If you want to booze up your hot choco­late, keep it sim­ple! Don’t go over­board with the hooch, 1–2 ounces per serv­ing should suffice.  Add liquor to the ther­mos then pour hot choco­late on top.

Boozy hot choco­late sug­ges­tions: Brandy and Crème de Cacao, Tia Maria and Bailey’s.