This can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated, but if you use the spices, keep in mind their flavor intensifies over time.
Authentic cocoa tea is made from cocoa sticks, which are 100 percent pure Trinidad cocoa beans ground into a paste with local spices.
Real hot chocolate made with a bar of great chocolate is a dessert unto itself.
Hot Cocoa is versatile. You can make it as lean or rich as you like by choosing nonfat, low fat or whole milk. You can even make hot cocoa with water instead of milk, as though it were coffee, and then add cream and sugar to your taste!
We've always liked the idea of crème de cacao, but the bottled liqueurs available in the United States don't have the pure taste we like. Making this liqueur yourself allows it to really absorb the flavor of chocolate.
To the surprise of everyone but native New Yorkers, egg creams contain no egg. When making an egg cream, it's best to use seltzer with a lot of fizz. Make the syrup (recipe below) and keep it on hand in the fridge.
You can also use this syrup to make and ice cream soda or egg cream.