the seasons are turning, and so are my thoughts

[capri0mni]

And polls look so jolly, to me. So I got to thinking, and I want to ask:

[Poll #829750]

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I am seriously going to try chili powder in my cocoa this year. In lieu of that, I chose coffee. ;)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I've actually tried to do that -- it's very hard not to get the chili to overpower every other flavor in the mix. It actually works well the way the Aztecs did it, with cinnamon (which I forgot to add to my poll) and vanilla.

It actually works best when the cocoa is less sweet than more.

Orange and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combos, but I didn't want to bias anyone answering by saying so...

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Some chili powders add a lot of heat without much pepper flavour, and others taste very peppery with only a bit of a bite. I think I might experiment with different kinds. Including the peppers from the backyard, probably.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I saw a cinnamon-flavoured Kit Kat bar in the grocery store the other day. Maybe it's just that it's cheap Nestle chocolate, but I couldn't imagine that it would be very good. Real cinnamon in hot cocoa, on the other hand, sounds lovely.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Real cinnamon in hot cocoa, on the other hand, sounds lovely.

Oh, it is, it is!

The way I see it, the Aztecs invented the art of fermenting cocoa for consumption, and they flavored all their chocolate with a mixture cinnamon, cayenne, and vanilla. So I figure they must have known what they were doing (Mexican chocolate is still made with cinnamon, and all prepared chocolate has some vanilla in it).

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

In England we don't have this fetishistic ritual around cocoa that exists in America. It pretty much comes in a tub.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

We really don't have a fetishist ritual in America, either. Ours pretty much just comes in paper packets that you mix into hot water...

All the variations offered in this quiz were just what my own private, pure, purely mad brain could dream up, and would be what I would stock the world's store shelves with, if I ruled the universe...

So this Cocoa thing is my own private religion.

[kiri-l.livejournal.com]

I personally like spiced hot chocolate. Mexican, adding cardamon, chili powder, etc. =)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Once, I dipped into my container of cocoa powder using the same measuring spoon I'd recently used for curry powder, and then I licked the back of it. It was yum!

And curry powder= what?

Tumeric,
Cayenne
Ginger,
Cardamon,
Cinnamon,
and a few other things I'm not remembering, now...

So yeah. I'd say any one, two, three, or all of those are really good in combination with chocolate.

My mother sprinkled nutmeg on top of hot chocolate -- that was yummy, too.