I’ve always been really pleased with the coffee and tea that we sell. In fact, in all my years of drinking coffee, all my favourites are ones that we have stocked since we opened: from the dark richness of the Harazai from Yemen to the fruity, zingy taste of the Konga Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia. I think our loose teas are fantastic. Our Darjeeling and Earl Grey’s are, in particular, teas of delight.
Yet to date our hot chocolate offer hasn’t quite lived up to quality of our other drinks. It’s fine, it really is, and its presented well. Yet it hasn’t been excellent. So we’ve done something about it and found ourselves a supply of truly wonderful hot chocolate.
Kokoa Collection have been around for a couple of years and offer four hot drinks made with real chocolate. There’s a 58% Cocoa from Venezuela, a 70% Cocoa from Ecuador and an 82% Cocoa from Madagascar as well as a white chocolate option. The drinks are served in a double-walled glass sat on a wooden tray. They look good and taste divine. I honestly think we’ve matched the quality of our coffee and tea with this new offering. We’re also continuing to do our old hot chocolates as well for those who like a bit of cream, marshmallow and flake with their hot chocolate.
The Madagascan is my favourite. It’s rich, dark and very different from other hot chocolates. The makers claim that it has ‘intense flavour of red fruits without the sweetness so commonly found in hot chocolates. A real grown up hot chocolate!’ Sounds good to me. I also think it goes really well with our blondie. The combination of dark chocolate with the lightness of the white chocolate in the blondie works really well. Definitely worth a try.