December 12: National Cocoa Day

"Baby, it's cold outside" and since it's National Cocoa Day, it's a great day to make a good cup of Cocoa. When I was growing up there was only one cocoa in our home: Hershey's. Occasionally there was Nestle's. "Nestle makes the very best... ....chocolate" if you believed the advertising. I still have fond memories of Hershey's Cocoa. You made the syrup and then added sugar and milk, so you really made it to your liking. (In 2005 Hershey launched a SPECIAL DARK Cocoa)

But now that my cupboard is stocked with more sophisticated organic fair-trade cocoas and sipping chocolates, I always have a choice. Here are some of my favorites.

Rechiutti Dark Hot Chocolate
Dagoba Drinking Chocolate. Authentic Drinking Chocolate, Xocolatl Drinking Chocolate, Unsweetend Drinking Chocolate.
Chuao Spicy Maya Hot Chocolate, Winter Hot Chocolate, Abuela Hot Chocolate (lots of choices)
Scharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder (both sweet and unsweetened)
Dagoba: Authentic, Xocolatl, Unsweetened
Valor Taza Premium Drinking Chocolate
Ghirardelli Barista Dark Chocolate (this is for retail businesses)

Recipes:

• Want to make really rich hot cocoa? Substitute chocolate or vanilla ice cream for half the milk. Make sure to stir the cocoa and milk all the way through before adding the ice cream.
• For Cinco de Maya, I had a Recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate. Why wait until May 5? Make this today.
• SavoryTV has Cafe Angelina's Chocolate L'Africain recipe. Cafe Angelina (226 rue de Rivoli) in Paris is famous for it's rich hot chocolate called Chocolate L'Africain for its Ivory Coast Cacao beans. Yum. This recipe is the next best thing to being there... well almost. Paris is Paris, after all.
  

And did you know that cocoa is also very good for you? Remember your resolution to drink more green tea for its cancer-fighting benefits? Well hot cocoa is a sweeter way to get your antioxidants. According to Cornell University food scientists, cocoa has three times more antioxidants than green tea. Drink up!!

Want to learn more about Cocoa? The Nibble has everything you want to know! Go HERE.