Warm Up with a Brancamenta Hot Chocolate
It's Boozy Hot Chocolate Weather
It’s Boozy Hot Chocolate Weather
I don’t recall if it was a passing comment on Instagram or a mention in her incredibly popular newsletter, but it was probably a few years ago when a very famous bestselling cookbook author threw some shade concerning grown men who order hot chocolate instead of coffee. Reader, I felt seen, and a bit stung.
I often think of that pointed hot take/ick/red flag of hers whenever I order a hot chocolate, which happens at least a couple times each week this time of year, starting around late October through February. I’m not a complete savage. I mix it up with my usual lineup of double-espressos, cortados, and cappuccinos, but sitting on a bench out in the elements while clutching a hot chocolate brings me… if not joy, comfort.
I’m pretty pedestrian in my hot chocolate tastes. Those thick and rich “drinking chocolate” affairs aren’t what I’m seeking (though RIP to City Bakery’s Annual Hot Chocolate Festival). Whether it’s Starbucks or Dunkin’ my order is for an “extra hot hot chocolate, no whipped cream” because more often than not most hot chocolates turn out to be decidedly tepid chocolates. (The “extra hot hot…” move is always awkward to say and usually requires some clarification.)
My local Daily Provisions outpost has a very nice, and very expensive ($8.00!), hot chocolate on offer this winter, but getting it to the proper temperature has never been successful and the “no whip” request sparks a host of food allergy questions concerning dairy. (The last one I ordered there had an errant hole in the bottom of the cup which took me more time than it should have to notice before it dribbled on my crisp white Air Max 1s. The team was very responsive and helpful remedying the situation.)
Over the holiday break I spent a lot of time at Mazzola Bakery in Carroll Gardens and if you ask for it “extra hot” they deliver. It’s a classic bag of hot cocoa mix made with milk and it’s so hot it takes me at least a half hour posting up on their bench to really get into it (also because their medium cup is huge). I would have that with a center square cut of their crumb cake, a classic confection of yellow-cake topped with an inch-thick strata of cinnamon-brown-sugar crumble. Sadly, the crumb cake is now on sabbatical but promised to be back soon and the other day they were also out of hot chocolate.
So, despite what the girly pops think, I will continue to drink hot chocolate when it’s cold outside and not even resort to manning up with spiked hot chocolate, which is today’s featured recipe. This Brancamenta Hot Chocolate from chef Eli Dahlin is from my book, Amaro, and was also featured in a New York Times’ story on boozy hot chocolate. Dahlin’s chocolate blend is flavored with orange zest, dates, vanilla, salt, and espresso and fortified with Brancamenta. This minty cousin to Fernet-Branca comes in at 30% alcohol by volume (compared to Fernet’s 39%) and in addition to aloe ferox, chamomile, myrrh, rhubarb root, and saffron, is flavored with peppermint and contains more sugar than the drier Fernet.
While I was in Milan working on Amaro, Edoardo Branca told me that his grandfather, Pierluigi Branca, saw the opera singer Maria Callas in a restaurant doctoring her Fernet-Branca with mounds of crushed ice and mint leaves. She explained to Pierluigi that it was part of her pre-show routine—“the ice would cool her throat, the peppermint would disinfect it, and the myrrh in Fernet-Branca expanded her pylorus,” said Branca. Fratelli Branca released Brancamenta in 1963 and despite its use here in a hot winter drink, it’s typically served over “lots of ice” during the summer months. “We have it at every barbecue!” said Branca.
Brancamenta Hot Chocolate
This recipe comes from Eli Dahlin, the opening chef de cuisine at Renee Erickson’s award-winning Seattle restaurant The Walrus and the Carpenter. When he first created this drink at Seattle’s (now permanently closed) Damn the Weather in Pioneer Square, Dahlin turned to Brancamenta when he was looking for a candy cane replacement. “In general, I recommend using dark amaro with other earthy, baritone flavors and offset by brighter notes like anise, orange, or mint. Considering that approach, this recipe seems a no-brainer,” says Dahlin.
Makes 4-6 Drinks
5-3/4 cups water
3/4 cup Demerara sugar
2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise and seeds scraped out (use both pod and seeds)
6 Medjool dates, halved
Zest from 1 large orange, cut into strips
13 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee or espresso
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
6-1/2 ounces Brancamenta
Garnish: Whipped cream and orange zest
Combine water, sugar, vanilla, dates and orange zest in large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes. Strain liquid, discarding solids and bring back to boil.
Break chocolate into pieces and place in large bowl with cocoa powder. Pour about 1 cup of hot sugar syrup onto chocolate. Wait 1 minute, then whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Continue to whisk together liquid and chocolate, adding liquid in 1-cup increments until all of it is incorporated. Stir in coffee and salt.
Carefully strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan and bring back to a simmer.
Pour 1½ ounces of Brancamenta into a coffee cup. Pour in ¾ cup of the hot chocolate. Top with whipped cream and orange zest.
Follow Brad Thomas Parsons on Instagram.
Links to some featured books and products are shared via affiliate programs.
LAST CALL logo and design by Ed Anderson.
As your friendly neighborhood volunteer Brancamenta ambassador, I endorse this wholeheartedly.
My kind of drink!