Spicy Hot Chocolate

3 cups milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
cinnamon sticks

Warm the milk in a saucepan, then pour it into a blender.
Add the cocoa, sugar, ground cinnamon and ground cayenne.
Process until frothy.
Serve in warmed mugs with a cinnamon stick.


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Old Magic 1

Old Magic1 wrote:
> Spicy Hot Chocolate
> Warm the milk in a saucepan, then pour it into a blender.
> Add the cocoa, sugar, ground cinnamon and ground cayenne.
> Process until frothy. Serve in warmed mugs with a cinnamon stick.

St. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I wonder if spicy hot
chocolate has an aphrodisiac effect on women beyond that well-known
effect which a box of chocolates has?

I read a newspaper article recently about some locals who'd visited La
Bufadora, the famous blowhole on the coast south of Ensenada. They said
that they'd been given chocolate flavored with vanilla, and that was
supposed to have an aphrodisiac effect, according to the waiter who
served them...

I remembered reading a story about the Aztecs drinking chocolatl spiced
with chili peppers, but didn't find any recipes. The cayenne pepper you
suggest is made from ground up South American red chili peppers...

Chocolatl is still prepared in many ways by the indigenous peoples of
Mexico:

"Cacao (cacahuaquahuitl) is a bush cultivated in the Southeast of
Mexico and it was so precious that it was used as currency. To prepare
chocolate (chocolatl), dry seeds from a tree called pochotl were
toasted and they were ground on a metate (a concave stone) placed on
red-hot coal so that the paste didn't get sticky. The paste was mixed
with water and sweetened with honey or maguey syrup. Flowers or
aromatic herbs were added, which besides flavor gave it color. It was
served in decorated jicaras (gourd cups). Cocoa could be ground with
flowers called enacaxtliz which are yellow and have a very strong
flavor. In Chiapas, it was drank mixed with myrtle flowers
(axocopaconi). Mexican nobles and kings drank cocoa aromatized with
vanilla (tlilxochitl) which means black flower. It has that name
because its fruit turns dark when it dries. This orchid is still
cultivated in Papantla, Veracruz. If cocoa is mixed with corn dough it
is called champurrado, which is drank hot.

"Natives from Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz still
drink it in the morning dissolved in water and they prepare some kind
of bars or balls with ground almonds or sugar. Nowadays, there are many
ways to prepare chocolate, it is dissolved in milk and can have
Spanish or French style. Cocoa mixed with toasted ground corn is called
cacahuapinolli. In Chiapas a mix of chocolate and achiote it is drank
as a cold drink called tascalate or haxcalate. In Oaxaca , they put
cinnamon in it, dissolve it in cold water and they call tejate a foam
they prepare with cocoa, corn and Cocolmecan ground reed. If toasted
and ground cocoa is prepared with cooked corn, you will be drinking
chorote de Tabasco or piznate, name given to it in Nayarit."