To want a HOT chocolate?

[AlwaysTheBabysitter]

I know it's me and that I'm an uncultured swine with an asbestos mouth, but I'm starting to feel disappointed whenever I try out a lovely, independent shop which prides themselves on doing a spectacular hot chocolate, only to be given a cup of (admittedly delicious) lukewarm chocolate instead. Which is no good when I want to sit and savour it, and do the whole 'two hands around the mug, jumper sleeves dangling to my fingers' thing. Instead I end up having to gulp it down before it actually goes cold.

I did mention it at my local coffee shop when they started doing the same with their coffees, only to be told that it's the optimum temperature for the beans, and I've heard that the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser produces lukewarm chocolate too. So I suppose the experts have spoken!

Looks like I'll have to stick to tea.

I've never been able to eat really hot food or drink hot drinks. I don't know how other do it. It's painful.

Why do you need to wait for a drink to cool down?! I much prefer to be able to actually drink it right away!

Yes, my lovely coffee shop of choice has said this is exactly the problem that they have.

Anyone who doesn't know me there, I have to say 'extra hot, really hot. Like burning hot' to ensure they get it!

I know it's hard for them dealing with the vagaries of customers.

I remember a woman being utterly horrible to the staff as she spotted they'd used full-fat not slimline milk. They apologised & remade it no problem but she tore them apart. After she left the 2 servers said to each other, 'making a fuss about slimline milk when she's ordering a hot chocolate 🙄'. Then they realised that was my exact order ... I just laughed. I have such sympathy for people working in busy coffee shops with myriad options.

OP, I know exactly what you mean. I rarely order hot chocolate now as it’s usually only warm. Another thing I’ve noticed is that some cafes are keen to tell you about the fancy coffee beans they use, yet use cheap hot chocolate.
Then there’s hot chocolates that just aren’t very chocolatey.
The clue is in the name- hot chocolate- so don’t give me warm brown milk.

I feel better for that. Thanks OP.

It's funny I think I'm just realising from this thread that this might be the case!
I really didn't realise people had different tolerances for heat (as opposed to just preferences).

I'm with you.

I suspect it's a combination of reasons: They'd get just as many complaints about it being too hot. They think tables will turn round quicker because people aren't waiting for drinks to cool. Lower risk of being sued by people who burn themselves (anyone remember that McDonalds case in the US years ago?).

On a similar theme: restaurants that serve hot food on barely warm (or cold) plates is a personal bugbear.

It's because of lawsuits. I always ask for extra hot so the heat lasts longer.

Welcome to my life. I'm middle aged and like hell am I paying four quite for a warm milkshake. I always specify, can I have it extra hot please?

I literally can't drink warm milk, it takes me back to primary school when the government gave you a free little bottle of milk every day and it sent all morning sitting beside the radiator before serving.

Hot and warm are two completely different things.

I had a cappuccino yesterday that was 40 minutes before it was cool enough to drink. I nearly ended up with a parking fine when it took me so much longer than normal to drink it.

Because a hot drink can cool down but once it’s become too cold then it’s not nice.

It will have started cooling down by the time they bring it over anyway.

But if they made it cooler and then it started cooling down even more, it would get really cold really quickly.

I know what I’m trying to say but can’t explain it 🤣

You need to borrow my DH, he’s perfected ‘don’t need to drink immediately but won’t take the roof of your mouth off’ hot chocolate.

He makes me one every evening while I read!

I'm a big fan of hot chocolate from vending machines for this reason. They're mostly made with hot water. Asda do a lovely one for a quid.

40 minutes?

🤣

It’s ok, it makes sense, but as a wet blanket who can’t drink really hot drinks then it’s utterly alien to me that the drink could really cool down that much between them pouring it and giving it to you!

@MorrisZapp

That might be my issue too! We paid for milk in my primary school but like that, it was left out & was warm by break time.

Woe betide you if you were caught throwing it away, unfinished.

I can't drink milk at all since then but yes, lukewarm hot chocolate brings back those memories!

You are SO not being unreasonable, @AlwaysTheBabysitter!

Having said that, I don’t often drink hot chocolate, but coffee in a cafe is never hot enough for me. I always ask for extra hot and even then it’s often still what I’d call lukewarm. I too have been lectured about milk being 'scorched'. And I don’t care - I’m the customer and I want my coffee hot. There’s at least one otherwise-nice place local to me that I just won’t go to because I know I’ll end up paying £3.60 for a cup of tepid coffee-flavoured milk and feeling massively resentful.

(And while I’m about it, the same applies to 'toast' that’s just damp, barely-coloured bread)

Oh yes OP, I'm with you and this is why I don't buy hot chocolate out anymore. I do get them as my drink with McDonald's meals though as I don't like massive cups of pop.

It's like playing roulette - will it be scalding hot brown tasteless liquid, tepid but delicious creamy chocolate or the holy grail - scalding hot delicious creamy chocolate??

Yes, me too! I mean, I love my HC made with proper chocolate costing most of a €5 but where I work, there's such a machine, nasty enough chocolate, mostly HW, bit of milk or milk type substance BUT the temperature is spot on!

I agree with warming the mug first. If I make a milky coffee with the velvitiser at home, I also add some boiling water to make it properly hot, but I'm not sure that would work with chocolate?

A lot of independent shops say that about coffee and hot chocolate.

I always ask for my coffee to be extra hot - and if it’s not, I take it back and ask for a new one. But, IMO, if you are paying you get to dictate the temperature. If you then don’t like it as the milk is over hot and tastes funny that’s your problem. TBH I’ve never had a coffee that was ‘too hot.’

and Richard Curtis on the next table eyeing you up to be an extra in his next UK film about love and life. 😄

I had a cappuccino yesterday that was 40 minutes before it was cool enough to drink. I nearly ended up with a parking fine when it took me so much longer than normal to drink it

Where is this wondrous place?!

You can also press the button again-it won't give you the full cycle, but does heat it a little more. (BTW, I like to use 2 sachets to make a richer drink)

I agree OP and I have the same problem with lattes too, anything where the milk needs to be hot seems to be an issue! I have had that snooty speech about milk scalding as well from a few baristas and it's bollucks, obviously I don't want it scalded, just really hot (80 degrees or whatever) as opposed to a temperature you'd serve it to a child!
I always ask for either drink to be 'extra hot', which my husband finds embarrassing when ordering for me as he thinks it sounds bratty and demanding. But my feeling is that if I'm paying best part of a fiver for a hot drink it's not unreasonable to ask for it how you like it!

I'm with you OP and the others who like hot drinks actually hot.

I rarely get hot drinks out and especially not hot chocolate because it's almost never actually is hot even when I ask for 'extra hot'.

Like you I have visions about a leisurely half hour in a coffee shop sipping at a hot chocolate only to have to illusion shattered by a drink that is barely hot enough when it's served so I have to gulp it down so I can actually drink it. Not an experience worth paying coffee shop prices for.