Hotel Chocolat Gingerbread Liquid Chocolate

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on November 18 2010 | Leave A Comment

This is part of Hotel Chocolat’s new winter range, and was one of many items in our goody bag at their Christmas launch event waaaaaay back in July.

The idea of gingerbread hot chocolate sounds amazing to me. I’m a sucker for a nice warming mug of hot chocolate on a cold day, so I was really looking forward to trying this.

As with most good hot chocolates, this one is made from real chocolate. In this case, it’s tiny flakes of gingerbread flavoured milk chocolate. It looks and smells delicious.

The bottle gives instructions for preparing on a hob or in the microwave, so I opted for the traditional method, warming the milk in a pan and slowly adding the required six level teaspoons of Liquid Chocolate, then simmering for one minute.

All very easy, and in no time at all I had a nice looking mug of hot chocolate.

Unfortunately, this was where things started to go downhill a little. I had been expecting a delicious and warming chocolate drink, but instead my mouth was greeted with the intense heat of the ginger, but not much actual flavour. I actually had to go back and look at the ingredients because I was convinced some form of chilli would be high up on the list.

But no, it’s just ginger powder. There’s also nutmeg and some other flavours in there, but the ginger is just too intense to make a comforting hug in a mug. This is more like a slap in the face. And despite being made with a 40% milk chocolate, that ginger hit somewhat overpowers the chocolate flavour too.

The other day though, I had a brainwave. I was making a simple hot chocolate the way I usually do, with good quality dark chocolate and milk, and decided to add a single teaspoon of this Liquid Chocolate into the mix. The results were amazing – an intense dark chocolate flavour with a subtle and warming gingerbread flavour.

Last week, as the weather got significantly colder, I tried sprinkling a spoonful on some porridge for my breakfast. The results, again, were amazing.

So, making this according to the instructions just didn’t work for me. If you like things particularly hot and spicy, then it’s fine, but for the the rest of us, it’s perfect for spicing up to your regular hot chocolate, breakfast, ice cream, or anything else you think of!

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Comments On This Post

  1. Helen

    I’ve never yet been able to make any of Hotel Chocolat’s liquid chocolat drinkable. I absolutely love their chocolates, but I can not get this drink right. Despite following the instructions to the letter, all I end up with is a watery mess with gritty bits in it, that tastes of absolutely nothing.

    Rather than throw it away, I’ll try your idea of just adding a spoonful to other hot choc. Otherwise I’ve been using it to sprinkle on the top of chocolate cakes!

  2. I think the best way to make hot chocolate is to buy some chocolate and melt it with milk – it will always taste better than a powder. Ginger hot chocolate does sound great – perhaps you could add some powdered ginger to this too?

  3. manuela

    This is actually pretty poor, there are lots of better hot chocolates out there.

  4. Ha, now see I LOVED this hot chocolate just as it is – there is a fiery warmth from the ginger but ginger lovers want that, not some pansy vague ginger flavour. Mixing it with the plain version is a good idea for those who want it subtler but I genuinely like it just as it is!

  5. Helen, I had that problem at first, now I heat the milk up to slightly hotter and that seems to resolve it!

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