Hot Chocolate fetish

[TrickyD]

What’s with hot chocolate being some sort of exotic drink only consumed at Christmas, or on Christmas Eve?
It is basically cocoa sugar and milk and easily available any day of the year. Why make such a song and dance about it? It is not exactly the elixir of the gods.
If you are that keen on it why do you have to snuggle on the sofa to drink it? Why not just stand around glugging it in the kitchen whenever you fancy some?

I'm diabetic, so can't really have hot chocolate due to the sugar. Once a year, on Christmas Eve, I allow myself a single rich, dark hot chocolate with a generous splash of Cointreau. Bloody gorgeous it is, a real Christmas treat.

"Posh hot chocolate" The answer to everything,like a spa day.

Unless you drink a miserable cup of brown sadness water (aka low fat hot chocolate with artificial sweeteners) it is massively calorific and loaded with fat and sugar. Some of it is around 500 calories a serving.

It is understandable that people save it for a treat.

I don't get it either and I'm not a fan. Don't understand those hot chocolate stations that were all over Instagram a few years ago that people were setting up in their homes. Although my DD would probably love that!

Brown sadness water 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I don’t consider it to be exotic, but I do associate it with winter/Christmas. I don’t really fancy a hot choc in summer. I could buy pigs in blankets, Camembert or a chocolate Orange any time of year but I don’t. They just have wintery / festive connotations for me in the same way hot chocolate does. I think it’s nice to save some treats for certain times of year!

That is the perfect description of the rubbish hot chocolates out there!

I would rather have it once or twice a year but a really lovely, Italian style, thick and rich one, mmmm!

We are actually having a Hot Chocolate Bar at work today 😂apparently it's going to be 'posh' hot chocolate with toppings. ]

Bloody hope so. For 100 people, its costing £1900

I buy hot chocolate around Christmas for my daughter’s so the feel included in the Christmas drinks while we have something alcoholic. It’s just treating them with something nice while we enjoy a drink as a treat.

I wish there was a WTF emoji.

Our local cafe does seasonal hot chocolate from September to Easter.
At Easter the special looked like a warm chocolatemilkshake in a hollow Easter egg piled high with whipped cream, mini eggs, chocolate bunnies and chicks topped off with flake. I don't know how people survive these things. They must have the cardiac unit on speed dial.

This really.

Mumsnet has always had beef with hot chocolate at Christmas, especially if it is described as “posh” or referred to as “hot choccy”

We have shitty powdered hot chocolate most of the year round.. maybe not in the peak of summer. I personally don’t drink much of it because I don’t like the texture.

However, Christmas Eve after we’re all bathed, fresh new pyjamas on and settled on the sofa I make us all a super thick rich hot chocolate by melting dark chocolate into a mixture of milk and cream with a squirt of sweet cream, marshmallows and sprinkles🫶

Yes, I’m always bemused at the What are your Christmas Eve traditions threads where you’re guaranteed more than one poster claiming spending the afternoon sitting in front of the fire with a hot chocolate is the highlight of their children’s year.

Agreed! The way people go on about it - ‘hot chocolate stations’ etc., you’d think it was some rare and exotic concoction that was only ever available in December.

Posts from people getting cross about other people being into hot chocolate at Christmas seem to be far more prevalent on Mumsnet than posts from people who like hot chocolate. I don't really understand why it annoys people so much.

Loads of things people get excited about at Christmas can be eaten at any other time of year. Mince pies are incredibly easy and inexpensive to make, for example - as simple as jam tarts - and jars of mincemeat are for sale all the year round. Similarly, there's nothing to stop you having pigs in blankets on an ordinary Sunday roast. They're not difficult or luxurious. But nobody seems to get irritated about that.

Personally, I like a hot chocolate and it's what I would usually order in somewhere like Starbucks/Costa/Nero. I don't really drink coffee, and tea from coffee shops is invariably revolting, so I generally either have a chai or a hot chocolate. I don't think of it as a Christmas thing. But I can't get worked up about other people seeing it as festive. What does it matter?

Who said that it’s an exotic drink consumed only at Christmas Eve?
Hot chocolate available all year around and people drink it all year around if they want. But of course if you are thinking about hot drink on a cold day which also suitable for different generations and feels a bit of a treat - hot chocolate ticks all these boxes. It’s often our family choice of drink when out in town October -April, we are lucky to have a place with amazing hot chocolate.
End of November and December is pretty cold. You wouldn’t do whiskey as united warning drink for a family with 2 small children and a set of grandparents coming home after walking around and looking at Christmas lights would you?
And when I’m saying a treat I mean good quality hot chocolate which will be more expensive than say squash and much more calorific than black tea with a splash of milk. So good hot chocolate is not something you drink everyday money and calories wise.

There’s lots of shit we do at Christmas that we don’t do at other times of year. That’s kind of the point OP.

I fucking love hot chocolate and drink it whenever I want though.

I don’t think most people drink hot chocolate that often with all the cream, sprinkles, marshmallows, candy canes and other toppings added, so it’s something a bit special for Xmas. If it’s not for you, that’s ok, but no need to try to bring others down.

I often wondered this^ as well
How people can survive these towers of calories? It’s a mystery.

I think hot choc, like popcorn, has come to be a habit associated with snuggling and being cosy and relaxed. There's nothing special about popcorn on the sofa, either, you empty a bag form the supermarket into a bowl. It's like alcohol (endless jokes about wine o clock / prosecco ad nauseam) has become a by-word for stressed busy Mum's decompressing.

It's as much a signifier as a treat in its own right.

I make it just with milk and cocoa powder (not Hot Choc mix) maybe half a teaspoon of sugar, or grated dark choc, as an afternoon treat when I am trying to stay away from the toaster and more calorific snacks. I like the dark choc taste and don't enjoy over sweet stuff.

I really do not want a 'mug and hot choc' as a secret santa gift or any gift, unless the mug is bone china and Scandi in design - the hot choc can go to the Food Bank.

I thought I was the only person to dislike hot chocolate, everyone else seems to love it. It's oversweet to start with and then people add marshmallows and hundreds and thousands ( refuse to call them sprinkles)

Have you not seen any Moomin winter books?
hot chocolate is a key essential of any winter party!

my dc are addicted to hot chocolate bombes, hot chocolate made with chocolate and not powder is a game changer. As is dark, spiced HC.

it is probably the search to evolve Christmas
traditions - it’s a winter holiday.

I thought everyone who liked it did drink it all year round. I try not to have it all the time as it isn't the best thing for my health but I'll have it when I fancy it, around Christmas time or not. Definitely more appealing to have a hot drink in winter than summer though.

I have hot chocolate all the time so I won't be having it especially on Xmas Eve. I might have some like I usually do at night. It is probably a tradition based on times hot chocolate was scarce

Ah! Hooked by the word 'fetish'. Thought there was going to be something naughty going with a mug of hot chocolate. Is drinking hot chocolate on the sofa a fetish?