Iced Mocha Drinking Chocolate

Oh chocolate… How I love you so… I love eating it, drinking it, smelling it… A great drink in the winter is hot chocolate, or even better: drinking chocolate. {For drinking chocolate, think “melted chocolate mixed into liquid” instead of “chocolate powder mixed into liquid”. The result is rich, creamy, chocolatey heaven… Devine!} Unfortunately, I don’t really like to sip on hot beverages in the spring and summer months. Luckily there are TONS of iced chocolate drinks that can be made. One of my favourite  chocolate drinks to make is a combination of chocolate and coffee. Anything “mocha” flavoured is just beautiful really… So here it is! Enjoy! 😉
Note: This is not a tutorial on how to prepare “drinking chocolate”. There are methods to making traditional drinking chocolate, and I encourage you all to explore these methods with some research. {I may provide an entry at a later date on this.} You may also want to experiment with different types of chocolate. This recipe is simply for a quick iced drinking chocolate. 🙂

Iced Mocha Drinking Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 1 cup vanilla almond milk {you can use regular milk or soy milk if you like. Almond milk is my milk of choice for pretty much everything}
• 1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder {or 1 shot brewed & chilled espresso}
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 squares best quality dark chocolate you can find {aim for at least 60% cocoa}
• 1/2 tbsp heavy cream/whipping cream {you can really use any type of cream, but I just happened to have 35% whipping cream on hand. You can also use non-dairy cream, or even 1/2 tbsp almond/soy/rice milk.}
• Sugar to taste {I use about 1 tsp of turbinado sugar. This sugar has such a nice, rich taste, and to make it even better: it’s vegan-friendly. More information on sugar at the end of this post.}
• About 1/2 cup crushed ice

Method:

• Place the almond milk in a blender.
• Break the dark chocolate square into small pieces, and place into a small bowl with the cream.
• Heat the cream and chocolate in the microwave on high for 15-20 seconds.
• Remove from microwave and stir until smooth and creamy. {At first it will be somewhat grainy and look as though it won’t mix together, but it will after you’ve stirred it for a minute or so.}
• Add the espresso powder {or shot of espresso}, vanilla and ground cinnamon to the chocolate mixture, and stir until everything is blended together.
• Pour the crushed ice into the blender, then the sugar and chocolate mixture.
• Blend until smooth, and enjoy! 🙂

For more information on sugar, visit:

• White Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Turbinado Sugar
• Types of Sugar and Substitutes {great info for vegans}