Homemade Spicy Hot Chocolate- Coffee with a Kick

I totally stole this from Shelagh over at Alice in Paris loves Art and Tea.... and gave it a try. And it is deliciously perfect and so so easy! So I thought I'd share it with you :)

As a espresso and chocolate gal, my daily coffee needs are woefully unmet by plain ole (organic and fair trade mind you) french pressed grinds. I usually supplement with honey, brown sugar...ahem-eggnogg-what? You know you want to try it.

The best addition to make daily coffee awesomer was this 'spicy hot chocolate' mix I bought at JustUs! Coffee last year. (I even sent a small container of it to Yancy @ Greenspell it was so good!). It had chocolate and a hit of some hot pepper-y spice that just warmed you up from the inside. Sigh.

That stuff costs money and requires packaging... Until Shelagh posted on how to make your very own homemade hot chocolate powder. Huh. I never thought I could just make my own. (perhaps all of you are reading this and thinking- what is wrong with her?? I've been making hot chocolate powder for years~! lol).

Anyhoo- gave it a go and what do you know? It's perfect! Although JustUs! doesn't have the nasty extra preservatives that most hot chocolate mixes do, making my own means less packaging and saved moneys!

Spicy Hot Chocolate Recipe:

A bunch of cocoa powder (I think I put about 2/3rds of the honey jar full)
Some brown sugar (two or three teaspoons)
Some white sugar (three teaspoons)
Three pinches of cayenne pepper powder. (maybe I put four... hah).

I actually only had cayenne pepper flakes. So I put a bunch in our coffee grinder and voilà! Powder! Super easy.

If I were more prepared here's some extra earth friendly steps to take:

• Use fair trade organic cocoa powder and sugar
• somehow process fresh peppers into a substance you can add to the mix.
• Also, I did consider grating some fair trade organic baker's chocolate I happened to have... but didn't.

Add one (or two) tablespoons to your coffee (travel mug or not) and there you have it. Instant coffee with a kick for the chilly, blustery day. Wrap a pretty ribbon on the jar and you got a very special, homemade gift. (ps, go visit Shelagh's lovely site- because her art is fabulous and I'll feel less guilty about stealing her idea :) )

Blessings!



(pps, ecoYogi(ni)s, the winter solstice is coming up- WITH a full lunar eclipse- are we pumped or what?)

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com