Home-made Black Forest Hot Chocolate.

One of the biggest things making me excited for Winter this year was the return of Costa's Black Forest Hot Chocolate. I was totally obsessed with this drink last year - I love hot chocolate anyway, but this takes it to a whole new level .. it's like drinking black forest gateaux. 

I decided I wanted to try making my own at home and started looking for recipes on line. It turns out that Costa use a black berry syrup in their hot chocolate, with a cherry sauce on top. I couldn't find black berry syrup anywhere but what I did find, was Monin Cherry Syrup and lots of Amazon reviews that said it was perfect for DIY Black Forest Hot Chocolate. Turns out I'm not the only one whose obsessed - I might start a fan group. 

It's taken a few tries, but I've finally got the technique right and wanted to share the recipe with you all. This makes a lovely cherry flavoured hot chocolate that tastes similar, but isn't an exact dupe of the Costa version. 

Here's what you'll need: 

Monin Cherry Syrup (available here at Amazon)

Drinking Chocolate Powder ( I use Bourneville Cocoa )

Milk ( I used semi-skimmed milk )

Squirty Cream 

Adorable Santa and Polar Bear mugs (optional)

First, put 1.5 teaspoons of cocoa powder into a small amount of milk -about a fifth of the mug. Stir this as much as possible and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Next, add 3 tablespoons of cherry syrup - it sounds a lot, but it's necessary if you want the flavour to come through. The aim is to create a thick concentrated liquid of cocoa, milk and syrup at the bottom of the mug. This is to stop the syrup from separating from the milk, which will happen if you skip this step! 

Once you've mixed in the stirred the syrup in well, pop your mug into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Take it out, stir it really well and add another bit of milk to take it to the half way point - then put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. Add the rest of the milk and heat it up for another minute, or longer if you like it really hot. As long as the milk is added gradually to the mixture, it'll mix perfectly. Finish off with lots of squirty cream, a sprinkle of cocoa powder and some cherry syrup over the top - and voilà! 

Hope you liked this post! 

Have any of you tried Black Forest Hot Chocolate? Have you ever made your own? 

xox