Hot chocolate recipe and a delicious meditation practice

3 simple ingredients, 1 secret bonus ingredient, plus 7 optional ingredients to mix it up with each cup

Weather is a helpful cue for many things. When Summer turns to Fall, and I start donning my sweatshirt and turtlenecks, my mind turns to squashes, cold showers (yes I do), holiday gifts, abhyanga (warm oil massage), and hot chocolate.

Today, let’s talk about hot chocolate!

It’s sweetness, comfort, warmth, indulgence, and JOY, all in one glorious mug. 

Joy, the best medicine, and the best practice ever

When the thought of hot chocolate comes up, it prompts Joy. Or perhaps Joy with a dash of

Should I?

My answer to you is

Absolutely you should!

Joy activates your metabolism and immunity. It opens up kindness, empathy, and your ability to process emotions, see possibilities, and to serve others. There is nothing more impactful and contagious than Joy. You’ve caught it many times when you’ve run into someone who greeted you with a deep sense of Joy. She saw you, and you couldn’t help but smile from the inside out.

Like a radiant smile, hot chocolate is easy access to Joy. It makes for an easy meditation, easy to be present for as you prepare it and enjoy. It’s a practice in receiving and accepting sweetness into your life, and in slowing down and taking your time. Bottle this wholesome experience and take this skill with you into the rest of your day. 

This isn’t a way to justify having hot chocolate. No, no. Hot chocolate needs no justification, and you’ll learn why below. And if there ever was a reason to feel guilty about it, it’s explained below as well.

Hot chocolate has impressive beginnings and carries forward into today

Hot chocolate has its roots in spiritual ceremonies and rituals. The ancient civilizations believed chocolate to be a gift from the Gods and therefore considered it sacred. It was used to connect with the Divine, and also for medicinal purposes. It even once had more value than gold! Those were the beginnings. Over time, hot chocolate took part in all sorts of celebratory and milestone occasions. It became what you do after skiing, ice skating, and playing in the snow. It became what you do to enjoy company with friends.

Ayurvedically, it can help you balance out feelings of restlessness and chill that comes with exposure to colder weather. It’s warming, grounding, and comforting. It’s a simple luxury most of us can afford. And, made right, it’s healthy.

How to make delicious and healthy hot chocolate

First, how not to: I would NOT recommend running out for the commercially popular brands of hot cocoa. Why? These are the versions of hot chocolate that are difficult to justify. Here’s the list of ingredients taken from a popular, well-known brand: 

sugar, corn syrup, modified whey, cocoa (processed with alkali), hydrogenated coconut oil, nonfat milk, less than 2% of: salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglycerides, natural flavor. 

Need I say more?

Do yourself sacred with these 3 simple ingredients instead: 

1. 2T of raw cacao powder. There’s a difference between hot chocolate and hot cocoa, which are often used interchangeably, including in this blog. And then there’s cacao. Technically speaking, hot chocolate is made by melting chocolate into water or milk. Hot cocoa is made from cacao beans, highly processed and converted into powder by roasting them at higher temperatures, thereby stripping them of nutrients; often, additives are added. Cacao powder looks like cocoa powder except that it’s minimally processed, nutrient dense, and is considered a superfood. Cacao is cold-pressed. If it’s ever roasted, it’s at temperatures low enough to still be considered raw. It’s much higher in antioxidant content than blueberries, green tea, red wine, and goji berries. Compared with blueberries, for instance, raw, organic cacao has an Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) score of 98,000 per 100g while blueberries score 2,400 (but still have your blueberries)! Cacao is high in vitamin C, soluble fiber, magnesium and other minerals (like selenium, zinc, and calcium). Nutrition varies depending on brand. Here’s the average per 2T: 73 cal, 1.7 g of fat, 7.2 g of carbs, 4.4 g of fiber, and 3.4 g of protein.
   As for using dark chocolate (ORAC score: 13,120), you can melt it into your milk; it’s fun, and I’ve enjoyed some of the most amazing hot chocolate this way. I don’t find this to be the most effective way of keeping hot chocolate in stock, however. And you have to pay more attention to what ingredients are in your bar of choice.

2. 1 cup of your favorite milk, as clean as you can afford. I use organic almond milk. Oat milk is also an excellent choice for a richer texture (and the one I like isn’t clean enough). If you’re keto, oat milk is too high in carbs. 

3. 1-2 tsp of your favorite sweetener. There are enough options outside of sugar, corn syrup, and aspartame to ever have to reach for those. Maple syrup is a good, natural alternative said to be anti-inflammatory and good for heart health. If you’re concerned about sugars, try monk fruit sweetener; this is my go-to. Stevia is also popular, I’m just not a fan. A word about honey: it’s Ayurvedically nature’s best sweetener because it creates ojas: the vital energy that gives you radiance, strength, immunity, and happiness. The material produced by our body system that give babies that healthy radiance. That said, cooking honey turns it into ama: a toxin, waste, and disease-causing. If you choose honey, add it to your drink once it’s in your mug and when it’s not boiling hot; your finger should be able to take the temperature. 

These 3 ingredients will yield more deliciousness per cup, both financially and energetically, than any hot chocolate mix you can find on the market. And, it’s healthy.

There’s a 4th ingredient that, in my opinion, is a must. And it’s free. 

Bonus ingredient # 4: Your blessing. You may not always be able to access, or afford, the cleanest organic products. What you CAN control and have access to no matter where you live and what your bank balance reads, is the energy and attitude you put into it. This one ingredient has the power to turn your food into a powerful healing, delicious, and comforting form of sustenance. It also turns your activity into a living meditation.

• Don’t make it angry. 

• Do make it with gratitude and loving kindness. 

• Stir in the vibration that you wish to sip into your body and experience. 

• Before you take your first sip, remember to visually take in the richness that is in your cup and breathe in the chocolate aroma. Enjoy it through all of your senses.

• Say thank you for my life just before you take in your first sip.

Here are some amazing optional add-ons that are delicious and beneficial. Mix it up each time you make a cup:

• Turmeric 1 tsp or to taste: a well-known anti-inflammatory and superfood, it boosts digestion, immunity, mood, and memory. It can also balance a woman’s cycle. 

• If you include turmeric, also include a dash of black pepper, which helps your body assimilate the turmeric better. Black pepper is also an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and good for gut and brain health.

• A dash of cayenne: supports digestion and detoxification, contains vitamins B6, K, potassium, and magnesium, can improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure, and reduce pain from arthritis and more.

• Cinnamon (about ½ tsp): boosts ojas - digestion, strength, immunity, vitality, anti-inflammatory, lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, and fights free radicals.

• Cardamom (about ⅛ tsp): a nootropic (improves cognitive function), it aids in digestion and pain relief, calms, is anti-inflammatory, good for heart and hair health, diabetes, and improves blood flow.

• Vanilla (about ⅛ tsp): is antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, a digestive, calms the nervous system, and promotes mental well-being.

Simply whisk or froth all of the ingredients together (except for the honey) until they are well blended, frothy and hot. When I prepare mine, I project love or chant mantra into it while I heat up my mixture to create an elevated cup of joy. 

Optional topping: whipped cream! 

Don’t poo-poo this as a bad thing. Somewhere along the line, we’ve been conditioned to think hot chocolate and whipping cream is bad, perhaps because what’s been available to us has been highly processed, making its high calorie count devoid of nutrients, and we’ve long mistakenly put all fat under the “bad” category (which has really done us harm).

If you can have dairy, and you love whipped cream, by all means have it.

• Fresh whipped cream contains vitamins A, B2, D, E, K, and calcium. It’s good for bone health, tissues, and is a concentrated source of energy (from the fat). Full fat (vs low fat) contains more nutrients. 

• You can easily make your own unsweetened version by blending heavy whipping cream (get a brand that’s as clean as you can afford) until it turns into whipped cream. So simple. 

• If you want it sweetened but are concerned about blood sugar and insulin levels or staying in ketosis, mix in some monk fruit sweetener. Many brands of monk fruit sweetener are mixed with erythritol. Some say it’s fine, some say it comes with side effects. To be safe, stick with the pure monk fruit sweetener. They’re online if not at your local store. 

• Ayurvedically, heavy cream balances the Vata qualities of Fall and Winter, which is dry, cold, spacey, and unsettled (fast moving). It also pacifies Pitta (irritation). It’s a good source of fat, rich in nutrients, and can promote good health when taken in moderation. 

Turn hot cacao into a food meditation

Make it with love, for yourself and others.

It IS a gift from the gods. We are so lucky, aren’t we?

Sip it with acceptance, gratitude, and unapologetic abandon. 

Love, Savitree