Happy National Hot Chocolate Day! While National Cocoa Day is observed each year on December 13th, each year on January 31st, National Hot Chocolate Day warms up people across the country by celebrating the timeless cold-weather beverage.
Hot chocolate is a warm beverage made with ground chocolate, heated milk or water, and sugar.
In America, we often use the terms hot chocolate and hot cocoa interchangeably. However, the two beverages are different.
Cocoa vs Hot Chocolate
We make hot cocoa with cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar. We’re able to do this thanks to a process developed by father and son chemists.
The thicker, more flavorful beverage, we make hot chocolate from ground chocolate containing cocoa butter. It’s also called drinking chocolate.
Hot chocolate has also been around longer than hot cocoa. In the early 1800s, Dutch chocolate factory owner Casparus van Houten Sr. developed a process to separate the cocoa solids from the butter.
His son, Dutch chemist and chocolate maker Coenraad Johannes, made those fats more soluble in water. Together their processes made cocoa powder possible.
But before then, everyone drank hot chocolate. This thicker, creamier beverage often offered medicinal benefits for stomach ailments during the 19th century.
In fact, long before the beverage’s popularity in Victorian times, it served in ceremonial culture.
Two thousand years ago, the Mayans likely created the first chocolate beverage.
A cocoa beverage was also an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 A.D. Europe popularized the drink after it was introduced from Mexico in the New World.
Make it and Benefit
Hot chocolate can be enjoyed in a variety of combinations, topped with whipped cream or marshmallows. Sometimes a sprinkle of cinnamon or a dash of peppermint makes the chocolate extra special.
In the United States, an instant form of hot chocolate is popular. It is made with hot water or milk and a packet containing mostly cocoa powder, sugar, and dry milk. People enjoy topping it with marshmallows or whipped cream.
There are health benefits to drinking hot chocolate. Cocoa contains significant amounts of antioxidants that may help prevent cancer. It has also been shown that the cocoa beans help with digestion.
The flavonoids that are found in the cocoa also have a positive effect on arterial health.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. You can make it with dark or milk chocolate. While you’re at it, try experimenting as well.
Add some cinnamon or other flavors to your chocolate. Of course, inviting a friend to join you is essential to the celebration, too.
Try adding these toppings.
- • Whipped cream
- • Marshmallows
- • Sprinkles
- • Candied fruit
Take a photo and use #NationalHotChocolateDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
National Day Calendar® continues researching the origins of this chocolatey beverage holiday.
#NationalHotChocolateDay
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