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.

Hythe, Kent. Maybe the mug was some kind of super-ceramic.

I don't like sipping, I like drinking so it was quite annoying for me.

I'm going to make a coffee now. Just an instant so fully boiling water with a splash of cold milk and time how long it takes for that to be drinkable

We have a Lidl/Aldi Velvetiser copy and when I use it to make hot chocolate, I press the extra hot button and microwave the finished drink for a minute then it is just about hot enough to drink.

I find most hot chocolate in cafes to be too disgusting sweet also, I never enjoy it. I have been loving the Hotel Chocolat 70% Hot Chocolate and will be trying making my own hot chocolate from bars of dark chocolate as suggested by a pp.

Also I have a milk frother and I use when making my hotel chocolat hot chocolate in a pot and I cannot tell the difference between that and my sisters velvetiser and neither can she. So buy a nice frother and save yourself kitchen space and money! The pot made hot choc is also as hot as you like!

I do sit in cafe's if I am meeting a friend but mostly the cakes, tea and hot chocolate are all much nicer at home!

What's an asbestos mouth?

(I have mesothelioma and have never heard of asbestos mouth)

I agree. At home I heat my milk as much as possible / before it boils over. And occasionally add some boiling hot water...

I just really like my hot chocolate to be very hot.

And as PP said: Hot / warm mugs make a major difference as well...

A mouth of someone who can tolerate food and drink at higher temperatures than others. Nothing to do with actual asbestos. Just a play on the flame retardant properties of asbestos.

Cocoa powder (pure cocoa without added milk powder or sugar) works as well imo.

From experience, if they’re getting your latte right, temperature wise, but not the hot chocolate, the likely cause is that they are mixing the chocolate powder with cold milk rather than hot when preparing it. Which leads to other problems, also, like the chocolate not actually melting properly and ending up as sludge in the bottom of the cup.

Always ask for them to mix the chocolate with hot milk, and look to see if they’re using a whisk to ensure the chocolate is properly mixed. It is perfectly possible to make an actually hot chocolate without burning the milk, it just needs for the barista to take as much pride in producing a deliciously comforting non-coffee drink as they do over their extraction times and crema.

I still remember the let-down of taking a young relative to the Christmas market at the Southbank in London one year and treating her to a 'luxury' hot chocolate from one of the stalls. I stressed 'extra-hot' because I suspected they wouldn’t be particularly hot. They handed over two extremely expensive styrofoam cups and we walked on amidst the hustle and bustle, opened them up within probably 30 seconds and found the contents almost completely cold. That was a costly lesson.

I had an unexpected HOT hot chocolate while at a fair last Christmas and spent Christmas Day unable to eat from the red sores on the roof of my mouth! Since then I've decided Luke is warm is fine 😂

On a side note I'm a trained barista and yes the milk has an optimum temp.. we have thermometer on the side of the jug.. if people asked for a hot latte I would just do it to boiling point if that's what they wished but I always wondered if it tasted different!

I order extra hot and usually it comes hot. Or else, take it back to the counter if it isn't hot enough, even in our bespoke choc shop that sells v posh hot chocolate.

They can steam the milk properly. Or else put it in the microwave for me.

I don't want a drink that is so cool I can take a mouthful. I want to have to sip it.

It does. And I like it 😂

www.caffegilli.com/en

The best place ever 😋

Just in case anyone is not familiar with the McDonalds case.

McDonalds had been superheating hot drinks so that people would not complain that they were not hot enough. They had been told to stop doing this because of several reported injuries. They kept doing it.

Stella Liebeck was a 79 year old woman (Originally from Norwich, England), who was in the passenger seat of a car. They ordered at the drive through and the coffee spilled in her lap when she tried to add sugar.

It was so hot her labia melted and fused together.

She asked McDonalds for $20,000 for medical costs only (no NHS in USA). They refused and said $800 max. She took them to court. The judge awarded punitive damages, because they had been warned several times. The amount was 2 days of coffee sales. $2.7 million but McDonalds argued for this to be reduced to $640,000.

McDonalds started a campaign to paint her as a frivolous lawsuit chaser. (It worked)

Oh yes, they can keep their lukewarm mugs of coffee and hot choc. To me, it is such a waste of good money to sit down to savour a hot drink and get a lukewarm undrinkable (to me) one instead. Then I have to neck it down or it will be COLD before I finish it. Ugh.

For this reason, I don't get hot choc anymore, but like a pp said, an extra hot mocha will do if I'm gasping for a hot drink when out and about.

I suppose we are expected to be sophisticated and drink stuff at the temperature of a baby's bottle, or we will be considered philistines!

At home I have the perfect solution to hot drinks at the temperature I like. I got a kitchen master hot water dispenser that sits behind my workstation/computer zone on the kitchen counter. It boils the water in a few seconds, so I make my coffee and halfway through when it is cooling down I stick the cup under the spout again and top it up with boiling water. Perfect, perfection, I love it! No filling the kettle ten times a day either.

I am obviously a heathen.

Thank you for the comment!

People complaining about the McDonalds coffee lawsuit are usually unaware about the backstory.

the drink was unreasonably hot, it caused major injuries and McDonalds had been warned repeatedly ...

Yes, the McDonalds case was actually horrific and they turned it into a big joke. The poor woman.

Yogi Christmas tea. Like mulled wine, a real mix of spices. Holland & Barrett do it nearer Xmas.

'two hands around the mug, jumper sleeves dangling to my fingers'

Cringing in millennial vibes babe

Of course the way round this is to intend the drink for a small child, in which case it will be both the temperature and consistency of lava.

Rooibos, hibiscus / rosehips infusions, the world of "Indian style" chais...

I have a really nice wild apple and rosemary tea blend.

And I personally really like green teas. But suggesting that feels a bit like opening pandora´s box, tbh... There are just so many types, quality differences etc.

Oolong however isn´t my cup of tea (horrible pun, I know)😂

If you can stick your entire finger into the cup and it is... lukewarm, then it is lukewarm. It isn't being dramatic.

I'm like you OP. Asbestos mouth. Love hot chocolate, not 'warm-ish' chocolate. I do make my own but it'd be nice to be able to order one while out and not have to gulp it down straight away before it goes cold.

I feel the same about coffee machines which is why I've never owned one. I drink it more or less straight from the kettle otherwise It's just not worth having.

It’s the same with coffee. By the time they have faffed around tapping down the froth and wiping spouts and often chatting to their colleagues the coffee is lukewarm. If you ask them to heat it up they hand you back a scalding cup.