Mocha: Hot Chocolate for Grown-ups

9 Comments / recipes

A mocha is 10x more enjoyable when I can forgo the ubiquitous, car-friendly paper cup and slowly sip it from a ginormous glass cup. This was from a brunch Janet and I enjoyed at Café Pirouette in Bellevue.

As I explained to the kids later, a mocha is hot chocolate with at least one shot of espresso.

Simple DIY mocha:

1 T of Pernigotti cocoa – great stuff, you have to buy it by the ‘kilo’
2 – 3 T of sugar
1T of cream
1/2 C warm milk to top off the cup
2 scoops coffee

1. Assemble the AeroPress – I find it useful to put this together upside-down, plunger in and add coffee.
2. Add hot (175°F) water to the coffee and swirl.
3. Press into a cup with cocoa and sugar. Stir until mixed.
4. Add cream and milk.
5. Enjoy!

9 thoughts on “Mocha: Hot Chocolate for Grown-ups”

  1. tedder

    We had a Seattle PD friend who was a really good shooter. Strangely, he loved his quad mochas.

    Beautiful pic. I’m going to share it over to mlkshk.

    1. carson

      Thanks. I have this weird inverse relationship with caffeine – if I had a quad, I’d fall asleep. Yet I also have geocaching friends who will become completely grumpy without their 2pm serving.

  3. Scott

    I also employ the upside down Aeropress method, which got me a fair amount of mocking at my last place of work, but I stand by it!

    1. carson

      When someone first suggested it to me, I thought it odd, but it makes a smoother coffee. Thanks for turning me onto the Aeropress.

  4. Scott

    I also upgraded to a permanent filter thingy, works really well, cleans up nice, and I never have to worry about the paper filter staying in place.

    1. carson

      The only problem I have had (so far) with the filter was an experiment with putting cold milk in first (and thus trying to caffeinate it first). That… did not end well.

  5. tedder

    what’s this upside down method? just to put the grounds in, or for the water to steep, or what?

    (motorbikers would call this the USD method)

    1. carson

      Ted – it’s illustrated here — see step five. Basically instead of putting the filter on first and pouring everything in from the “top,” you give it some time to swirl around. I am… not so formal about this, and don’t use the timer or say a ritual prayer to our molecule, C8H10N4O2, who art in coffee.

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