San Francisco’s only bean-to-confection chocolate factory is at it again with new goodies.
This time, TCHO has unveiled a Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate. Its the latest from the company founded by a former space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs; and overseen by CEO Louis Rossetto, former co-founder of Wired magazine.
A 300-gram tin of the dark chocolate crumbles is $10.50. Put a few teaspoons into a mug, pour hot water over, and stir. Or mix with warm milk. Add brewed coffee or not. You can enjoy the drinking chocolate cold in water or milk, as well. You also can make a simple chocolate sauce from it to drizzle over your favorite ice cream.
The drinking chocolate is a precise blend of three of TCHO’s chocolates: “Chocolatey” from cacao beans from Ghana, “Citrus” from beans from Madagascar, and “Nutty” with beans from Peru.
I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.
TCHO Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate: It looks a little like potting mix. But one whiff and you’ll know it’s premium chocolate all the way. I followed the directions to enjoy it hot: using about 5 teaspoons of the pulverized chocolate to about 7 ounces of hot water. Wow! Let me say that again: Wow!
I usually prefer water to milk in my hot chocolate drinks because I think water brings out the full chocolatey flavor more, while milk diminishes it and makes the overall beverage too rich. TCHO’s is not like those wimpy instant cocoa mix packets on supermarket shelves. This is one big chocolate taste in a small cup. It is rich, satisfying, soothing, creamy, and just coats your entire mouth as if an extraordinary dark chocolate truffle had just exploded inside of it. Rating: 10 lip-smackers.