Artisan Dark Hot Chocolate for Super-Fine Home Brewing
Another great item from French Broad Chocolate at the Candy Store
The same folks whose dark chocolate we’ve all been enjoying so much in the Bakehouse’s Chocolate Cherry Bread, Chocolate Croissants, and Townie Brownies in recent years just shipped us some of their terrific bean-to-bar hot chocolate!
French Broad Chocolate is one of the country’s oldest bean-to-bar makers. They work directly with growers in producing countries to build relationships and assure they have exceptionally high quality beans to work with. Jael (pronounced “jail”) Skeffington and Dan Rattigan got going with chocolate over 20 years ago when they were on a trip to Costa Rica. Long story short, they ended up in Asheville, North Carolina, where, in 2012, they formally started making their own confectionery. We’ve been happily carrying—and eating—French Broad Chocolate products for years now. I’m a big fan of everything French Broad Chocolate does. Jael and I have become friends, which makes sense since French Broad’s values are very aligned with ours here in the ZCoB, and pretty much every product I’ve ever tasted from them is terrific!
Jael shared the story behind this special hot chocolate:
We’ve been making hot chocolate for nearly 20 years, and like most things at French Broad Chocolates, we started by doing it the hard way. In the early days, we made ganache to order, whisking it into hot milk or half-and-half and cooking it down for about four minutes. It was undeniably delicious, deeply rich—and completely impractical for a busy café. Luxurious? Absolutely. Efficient? Not even close. We loved it, but we knew we could do better without losing the soul of the drink.
So we did what we always do: we tasted.
We ran blind tastings and to my genuine surprise, the version I scored highest wasn’t the pure ganache version at all. It was a blend made from shaved dark chocolate, cocoa powder, organic powdered sugar, and just a pinch of salt. Thicker. More chocolatey. More satisfying.
We originally chose powdered sugar for a simple reason: it dissolves completely in hot milk, and nobody wants a gritty cup of hot chocolate. The surprise magic came later. Our organic powdered sugar contains a small amount of tapioca starch to prevent clumping, and in hot milk, that starch gently absorbs moisture, naturally thickening the drink into something closer to a European-style drinking chocolate—plush, lingering, and deeply comforting. The cocoa powder adds depth and intensity without extra sweetness, letting the chocolate shine.
The result is a hot chocolate that’s unapologetically chocolate-forward, rich but balanced, nostalgic yet grown-up. It’s the kind of drink people stop talking mid-sentence to taste, close their eyes, then smile.
Sometimes the best version isn’t the most obvious one. It’s the one that wins the tasting.
I’ll say with certainty that the sipping is as awesome as the story behind it. I like making French Broad Classic Dark Hot Chocolate with whole milk, but word from Asheville is it’s just as good with almond or oat milk! Delicious. Super-clean finish. Just enough sweetness to take the cacao’s naturally bitter edge off, but beyond that, it tastes totally of dark chocolate, not sugar!
Oh yeah, I’ll mention that the Classic Dark Hot Chocolate comes in a beautiful Carolina blue “drum,” so it makes a lovely gift as well!
Catch your cup o’ cocoa
