Mexican Hot Chocolate

With Alex Whitmore

“Taza Chocolate is food, not candy.”

Three times I heard Alex Whitmore, co-founder of Taza chocolate, define his company’s product this way. Taza chocolate is delicious, but not like a creamy selection from a Valentine box. Taza has a fruity, complex flavor and a startling grainy texture that tastes good for you the way I always say that great cheese and great wine taste like a replenishment of something my body has been missing.  I could - and do - have Taza chocolate for lunch.

Taza is a Mexican style chocolate.  People in Mexico still drink chocolate for breakfast every morning as a nutritious, healthy food. In Mexico, chocolate is rough, not creamy.  It’s considered both a part of ordinary life, and it’s considered something special, something to pour for guests on a holiday.  This culture, not Switzerland, is the inspiration for Taza Chocolate in Somerville, MA.

Try this hot chocolate drink and you will taste what has been attracting people to it each morning for centuries.

From “Food For Thought” Contact Heather at heatheraa@aol.com. Her blog is at gloucestertimes.com/foodforthought

Ingredients

1/3 cup (2 1/2 to 3 ounces) Taza Mexican style chocolate
1/2 quart water, very hot or near boiling

Instructions

1. Grate the chocolate
2. Pour the water into the pitcher.
3. Add the chocolate to the hot water
4. Using a molinillo (a wooden Mexican mixing stick), froth the hot chocolate. If there is nomolinillo, use a spoon or regular whisk.

Pour and serve! Recipe courtesy of Taza Chocolate, 2010.

Born in Boston, MA and raised in the greater-Boston area, Alex Whitmore was always captivated by food, travel, and culture.  After earning a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at Vassar College, Alex spent several peripatetic years working many odd jobs in many odd places: captain of a private yacht, restaurant server and cook, parachute packer for skydivers, boat builder for America’s Cup boats, bike courier, and fleet manager for the fledgling car-sharing service Zipcar. In 2006, Alex teamed up with his friend and Zipcar colleague Larry Slotnick to found Taza Chocolate. Alex and his wife Kathleen live in Union Square in Somerville, just minutes from the Taza Chocolate factory.