hot chocolate recipe

Four O’Clock is an interesting company. I never heard of them until a friend from work bought me a tea gift a couple years back that came with a glass tea tumbler and four Four O’Clock teas. The teas were all sort of plain teas that did not excite me in the slightest: Cherry Green Tea, Orange Rooibos Black Tea, a herbal with a bunch of chamomile, and this tea, Earl Grey Creme. I sort of ignored the teas in my stash and it wasn’t until I started law school in September that I started even thinking about them again. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by Four O’ Clock teas since that is the brand sold in the law building.

Even still, I just couldn’t get excited about the blends. That is where Pinterest comes in. I came across this recipe. The recipe is for an Earl Grey Hot Chocolate and suddenly I had a very good reason to reach for this blend.

The recipe is super simple…you just heat 1 cup of milk and 1/2 a cup of heavy cream on a medium-low heat. Turn off the heat and steep 1 tablespoon of Earl Grey in the milk mixture for 10 minutes. Then turn the heat back on low and melt 5 ounces of finely chopped dark (or in my case, semi-sweet) chocolate into the Earl Grey-infused milk. There is a recipe for a cream topping as well but I got lazy and topped it with canned whipped cream.

This hot chocolate can basically be described in one word: “DECADENT!” It is really rich and so good. Not overly sweet but so smooth and creamy. The dark chocolate gives this so much depth that pairs perfectly with the earl grey. It matches the intensity of the earl grey and rounds out the flavor so the bergamot is more bright and less sharp. Honestly, decadent. This is a dessert in a mug, but an elevated dessert. This isn’t your typical childhood favorite. This is hot chocolate for adults. Sophisticated and elegant. Delicious!

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Where to Buy: Four O’Clock

VariaTEA

Hey there! My name is Rachel. I’m a twenty-something from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who loves dogs and has a bit of an obsession with tea. As a child I hated the stuff since all I ever knew was Red Rose (no offense to Red Rose). However, a few years ago that all changed. I was on a diet and desperate for new flavors without adding calories and that’s when I turned to tea. I started off by going to DAVIDsTEA and Teavana for all their dessert-inspired flavors, and since I didn’t know any better, I bought 100 grams each of about twenty-something different teas. This was okay for the teas I liked but for those I didn’t I needed to find some way of getting rid of them. Enter Steepster.com. This is where I met some incredible tea friends, discovered tea swaps, and learned of so many amazing tea companies. My desire to try all the teas grew and since joining three years ago I have tried over a thousand different teas. I have learned what ingredients I love and I have learned what flavors I don’t like. I determined my go-to brewing method is Western-style with no added milk or sweeteners, though I also enjoy cold brewing, iced teas, teapops, lattes, and smoothies. I have yet to brew gong-fu style but I hope to do so just as soon as I get the proper teaware to do it. About a year ago, I actually stopped drinking tea but as my stash of over 200 teas started aging I decided I needed to respark my interest. I chose to take a 365 days of tea challenge on Instagram in which I post a new tea picture every day. So far it has been rather successful as I find myself drinking (and buying) more and more tea each day. Plus it enabled CuppaGeek to find me and invite me here to SororiTea Sisters.

This post was posted in Four O'Clock Tea Crafters