Winters come and go, but hot chocolate is never out of favour

Apart from rediscovering your favourite mittens, the dramatic drop in temperature marks the return of hot chocolate season. I happily imbibe hot chocolate throughout the year, but when the temperature falls below 7 degrees, sourcing a deliciously comforting cup of molten cocoa is at its most indispensable.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that hot chocolate is just an off-shoot of our beloved chocolate bars, but drinking chocolate is actually where it all began. Chocolate in its solid, moldable form is a relatively new invention. It wasn’t until 1828 that Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten created a press that removed cacao butter from chocolate liquor, which proved to be the first step towards creating solid chocolate bars.

For hundreds, even thousands of years before that invention, humans only consumed cocoa as a liquid drink. According to Smithsonian.com, in 2007 anthropologists from the University of Pennsylvania discovered cacao residue on pottery, found in Honduras, which they believe dated back to 1400 BC.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, explorers to the New World discovered the (by then, ancient) practice of creating this bitter, unsweetened hot drink from cacao and brought it back to Europe.

The first drinker?

One such visitor was Sir Hans Sloane, a physician and collector born in Co Down in 1660. Sloane was an early and influential donor to the British Museum, and is the namesake for London's Sloane Square. He is often credited with inventing drinking chocolate but, as James Hawkes writes in Sloane the Chocolatier: A Tasty Myth (on sloaneletters.com), it is unclear if Sloane was the first person to ever think of sweetening cacao by mixing it with milk.

Still, it seems fair to say that he played some part in popularising this new hot drink back in the Old World. According to the website of Hans Sloane, the London-based drinking chocolate company, Sloane first tried the local cocoa and water drink in Jamaica in the late 1680s, but found it much easier to swallow when mixed with milk and sugar. He apparently developed a recipe alongside chocolatiers William White and Nicholas Sanders at a shop on Greek Street in Soho.

An ad published on the Hans Sloane website for his Milk Chocolate says the drink is "greatly recommended by several eminent Physicians especially those of Sir Hans Sloane's acquaintance, for its lightness on the stomach and its great use in all consumptive cases".

The idea of chocolate having medicinal properties has been found to have scientific standing, with studies proving its anti-oxidant and health properties. The Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study, published in the food and drink scientific journal Appetite in May 2016, showed that chocolate and cocoa consumption improved cognitive function.

Liquid divinity

The best hot chocolate I have ever had in Ireland was in Coffeewerk + Press in Galway. This super coffee and design shop has just returned its seasonal winter warming hot chocolate to the menu. It is made from organic 30 per cent chocolate powder spiced with black pepper, cinnamon, chilli and sea salt, sweetened hazelnut syrup and 100 per cent Jersey milk. It is liquid divinity at €3.50 a cup.

On a bitter day a few years back in Cork's Midleton's Farmers' Market, I was revived by a ginger-spiced hot chocolate from local chocolatiers Ó'Conaill Chocolate. This family business also rolls up to Mahon Point and Blackrock markets in Cork on the weekend, and their permanent home at 16 French Church Street is a one-stop shop for hot chocolates and handmade chocolate bars and gifts, including chocolate hurling sticks.

In Dublin, I've long been a fan of the tooth-achingly sugary sweetness and chocolate hit of Butler's Chocolates' marshmallow hot chocolate (€3.80). It's quite sinful. On the other end of the spectrum is the delicate and understate approach of coffeeangel, which simply adds steamed milk to cocoa (€3 for a small cup). On Middle Abbey Street, Vice Coffee Inc's Malted Hot Choc (€3.50) has become a popular draw. The baristas crush maltesers into a chunky dust and top with fluffy steamed milk for this sweet and malty brew.

Twitter recommends

When I asked Twitter for some hot chocolate steers in Dublin, Clement & Pekoe on South William Street, Kaph on Drury Street, and Nick's Coffee Co in Ranelagh all received shout-outs. One follower sends me news from Maynooth, where a chocolate bar, L'Art de Chocolate, is open for business on Main Street.

The brains behind the bar are Cyril Borie and Nicolas Bateau, both originally from the Basque town of Bayonne, considered the chocolate capital of France. They have sold their handmade chocolates and chocolate sculptures using Valrhona chocolate at the likes of Temple Bar Food Market, but now have a permanent home for their chocolate workshop and cafe. Time to hit the road and head for Maynooth.