Hot Chocolate Latte with Coconut Sugar

The Hungarian Pastry Shop on 111th and Amsterdam in NYC has my favorite hot chocolate ever because it’s not sweet, unless you add in their homemade whipped cream. It has the decadent, dessert-like quality of a latte without sugar (which is my coffee beverage of choice) and it’s incredible. I haven’t been able to entirely recreate it, but I think I came close with this one. And the makeup is such that you can customize it to your taste right in the mug to be more or less sweet, chocolaty, or rich!

I found a base recipe from Madhava and then adapted it as follows:

Mix together
– Unsweetened cocoa powder – probably 1-2tbsp per mug
– Coconut sugar. I actually have some that is powdered which dissolves well, but regular is fine too. You don’t need much of this, like a tsp, but you can add more if you want it to be sweet
– Salt – just a dash or 2 but this really adds
– Vanilla – just a dash again. You could flavor it with whatever. It won’t really come through the cocoa, but it’s a nice layer
– Boiling water – maybe 2/3 or 3/4 of the way up the mug
– Cream – the rest of the way up the mug. Alternatively you could probably use milk or a milk substitute instead of the water and cream, but don’t try to just use water because it will be gross

Stir, adjust to taste, and serve