The Anatomy of Hot Chocolate

When I am writing this post, it is October 31st 2020. Even though it does not get very cold where I live, I decided to write about my favorite hot drink of the winter season: hot chocolate.

What are the components of hot chocolate. Even though you can add extra ingredients such as peppermint and whipped cream, the core of the drink is milk, cocoa powder, and sugar.

Hot chocolate could not be hot “chocolate” without the chocolate. This mixture of chocolate and milk is called a colloid, which is a type of mixture where solid particles are dispersed throughout a fluid. You do not want chunks of cocoa powder, right? It is very important to mix your hot chocolate because colloids are known for not mixing. Sugar is either in the cocoa powder or in the chocolate you melt in.

The main ingredient of hot chocolate is milk. What is milk? Milk is an emulsion, which is a mixture of two immiscible liquids; in our case water and fat. Emulsifiers, which are molecules that are both fat and water-soluble, attract the two components together so that they do not separate. The emulsifiers in hot chocolate are proteins, mainly casein. This dairy product is the backbone of hot chocolate.

A glass of hot chocolate simply isn’t complete with a couple marshmallows on top. Marshmallows were a originally form of meringue, made from whipped eggs and sugar flavored with the juice from a marshmallow plant. Now, they are made from whipping gelatin and a sugar syrup together to form a foam. The “bounce” of the marshmallows come from the gelatin after it traps air bubbles inside of it.

The next time you make yourself a hot chocolate, spend a little bit of time appreciating all the science behind the cozy drink.

cites:

https://scienceandfooducla.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/anatomy-of-a-hot-chocolate/

I learned about emulsions from Harvard Food Science lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s1xJgEUX-o

https://www.cookingclassy.com/hot-chocolate/