I’ve long been a fan of hot cocoa. A hot bowl of this was my morning ritual for many, many years. My technique for drinking it may have been a bit odd but it was not without reason. I would use the same specific bowl each morning–never a mug. Never.

Unfortunately, this bowl is no longer with me. It’s not lost or broken, it’s at my parent’s house. So I can’t drink my hot chocolate from it with any regularity. These days I’m forced to use a mug, but I still hold onto the same technique…

It's a good mug, but it's not my bowl :( ... The hot chocolate is good though, so I'll live.

You see, this bowl had “ears” and a lip on the rim. I could easily lift the bowl to my mouth and take long sips while the steam rose and warmed my face… But that wasn’t my preferred method.

What I would love to do is to get a piece of freshly buttered baguette, preferably still crispy, and dunk that into the bowl. Most mugs would be too narrow to successfully dip a big tartine into. Using a bowl allowed me to enjoy a combination of several of my favorite things: fresh baguette, good butter, and chocolate. But that still wasn’t how I normally started drinking the cocoa.

I would start, quite simply, with a spoon. The still scalding cocoa was much too hot for me to drink by the mouthful. It was even too hot to dunk the bread into (besides, the butter would melt to fast!). But I was impatient, I wanted to drink it now! Waiting for it to cool would have shown too much restraint, and I had scalded myself one time to many already. I devised another way that would allow me to drink it immediately. I would take a large spoon, fill it with the hot cocoa, and sip from that. The logic was that the smaller quantity would cool faster than the large amount of liquid in the bowl. This allowed me to begin my chocolate before anybody else!

Another cup please.

I sometimes drank my entire bowl one spoonful at a time. I relished the idea that my hot cocoa could last so long. Every sip was a chocolaty pleasure that would bring a grin to my face.

In those days I didn’t make my own cocoa though. This version is truly better. It is very easy to make and can keep well stored in an airtight container. A food processor is required for this, but you basically dump everything in and let the blades pulverize everything.

I used to use Alton Brown’s food-processorless version, but since Cooks Illustrated had the idea to pulverize some white chocolate chips into the mixture, I have not looked back. In fact, I now add dark chocolate chips to the mixture as well. The addition of chocolate helps give a thicker, more luxuriant feel to the drink, even when made with water. (The powdered milk also helps.) But to be really enjoyed, it should be made with whole milk.

I have included two variants below. The first is my preferred darker, richer style and the second is closer to the store bought style. The amounts can be changed to make smaller batches. The powdered milk tends to either come in a large box, or individual packets measuring about one cup each. The ingredients below can be easily divided by three to use just one packet of milk for a smaller batch.

Hot Cocoa
Use about a third of a cup of powder per cup of hot milk or water. It makes about 20 servings.

Dark Chocolate Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Store-bought Style Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
In a food processor, pulse the ingredients until everything is a fine powder. Work in batches if necessary.
Store in an air-tight container.

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