Continue reading before you invest £95 on a milk frother that potentially does the same thing as a milk frother that does the job for a third.
For us coffee haters, sometimes one of the only hot beverages we can have in a cafe is hot chocolate. And in a lot of coffee establishments, hot chocolate is low down in the pecking order. They spend so much time perfecting the perfect latte and cappuccino, yet the hot chocolate is just a load of powder mixed in with milk. What’s that all about?
In recent years, Hotel Chocolat have switched up the game and said ‘let’s talk about hot chocolate for a second’. And I applaud this. They brought out The Velvetiser, which takes the pain out of making this delicious hot drink. Raise your hand if you’ve heated milk up over the stove and gotten it everywhere when you poured it out? With this velvetiser device, you add the milk and specific Hotel Chocolat shavings and switch the device on. Two and a half minutes later, you have hot chocolate! Great, right?
Well, yes, but … have you seen the price? The Velvetiser itself costs £99.95 (you do get some cool-looking cups with it though) and the refill box containing 10 sachets (10 drinks’ worth obv) costs £13-14. That’s not hot chocolate on a budget.
I originally wanted the Velvetiser, as I do love Hotel Chocolat (<3). But, I currently do not own a money tree and I also really like drinking luscious, velvety, foamy hot chocolate. What’s a girl to do?
Well, believe it or not there are in fact other options to the Velvetiser from Hotel Chocolat. I personally went for this milk frother from Eldom, but there are sooo many other options you can find online.
This milk frother is a really great, affordable option for us hot chocolate lovers and our coffee-loving friends. I paid £34 for it, it has three settings and I always manage to make enough to make two hot chocolates (with room in the cup for marshmallows and cream)! The milk pitcher connects to the base magnetically, so when your drink is done, you can take the pitcher off and pour wire-free. What’s more, it’s dishwasher safe, which the Hotel Chocolat product is not. And I always appreciate kitchen appliances that can be put in the dishwasher. Always.
The Eldom Milk Frother has three settings: one for cold frothing, one for warm frothing and one for just heating milk (or hot chocolate). As far as I know, the Velvetiser from Hotel Chocolat only has one setting and you can only make enough hot chocolate for one person at a time. So, at a third of the price, the Eldom Milk Frother is a no-brainer. I’ve even used just used it to warm up and froth milk for a chai latte. Worked a charm. I’m excited for summer to use the cold froth function for a milkshake.
For hot chocolate on the Eldom milk frother, I tend to heat the milk up first on the third heating setting and then press the cold froth button (first setting) for some extra va-va-voom to the froth! The one thing I always found amiss from hot chocolates I’ve had in places like Costa Coffee or Starbucks is the lack of foam. And just because I don’t drink coffee, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get foam on my beverage! The Eldom Milk frother really is great for this!
There are plenty of other milk frother devices available for the same price point or even lower. You can even use a handheld milk frother like this one. Just heat the milk up over the stove or in the microwave and then whisk whisk whisk!
And now let’s talk about the hot chocolate mix. In my hot chocolate, I use a mixture of my favourite hot chocolate powder and grated chocolate. This creates a great, balanced drink in my opinion. For extra speediness, I put my chocolate squares in the grinding attachment of my blender to create nice chocolate shavings that my milk frother can blend without a problem. Nobody got time for grating chocolate, amirite?
I don’t believe in paying more for something if I can basically do it myself for cheap. For 350g of grated chocolate, Hotel Chocolat charges £13! Let’s do some quick maths here; you can buy a 200g bar of store-own chocolate for £1. One pound. So for less than £2, you can grate the same amount (and a bit more) of chocolate that Hotel Chocolat is selling for £13. Admittedly, Hotel Chocolat do great chocolate and various different types, so it’s worth the money in terms of quality. But if you’re not rich and you don’t mind what chocolate you put in your drink, why choose expensive when you can get a great quality drink waaay cheaper?
Method
Makes 2 drinks
300 ml full fat milk
4-5 teaspoon of your favourite hot chocolate powder (I choose Cadbury)
35 g grated dark chocolate
- Put all the ingredients in your milk frother and heat up according to device instructions. Then froth up on the froth setting and pour into two cups straight away. If you’re using a hand frother, heat the milk in a jug in the microwave or in a saucepan over the stove. When it’s reached boiling point (a couple of bubbles hitting the surface), take it off the heat and get frothing.
- Top with marshmallows, whipped cream and sprinkle with extra hot chocolate powder and chocolate shavings.
Tips
- Mix it up and do half milk and half cream for a thicker hot chocolate.
- Get some fun coffee syrups and add them to your hot chocolate. My favourite syrup to add is caramel. Always.
- You can add a slurry of corn flour and water to the hot choc mix to make a thicker European-style hot chocolate. Just mix a teaspoon of corn flour to enough water to make a pourable paste. Add it with all of your ingredients at the beginning. In Poland, they tend to do hot chocolate on the thicker side and it’s delicious.
- If it’s a particularly cold day, pour some boiling water into your cups while making your hot chocolate. This will warm your cups up nicely, which will ultimately keep your drink hotter for longer. Just make sure to pour the water out of your cups before you pour your hot chocolate into them.
- If making two drinks, try alternating between both drinks as you pour. The thinner part of the liquid will come out first, so to make sure both people get an equal amount of the thick, foamy hot chocolate, it’s worth alternating as you go. You’ll see what I mean.
- If you can’t have dairy, try this recipe with non-dairy chocolate and any kind of non-dairy milk. I like almond or oat.
Baking Cupboard Journal 