You may remember about a year ago I did a review of a new spot that opened up in Austin Texas called the Hillside Pharmacy. The place was beautiful, but the hot chocolate left a lot to be desired! At the time I was told that they used Delysia Hot Chocolate but I suspected that something wasn’t quite right. The wonderful folks at Delysia read my blog and subsequently sent me a container full of their Lavender Hot Chocolate so I could judge for myself, and that is exactly what I did today.
Delysia is a chocolate company based in Austin Texas. They make truffles, and pretty much everything you can imagine made out of chocolate including of course hot chocolate. The owner, Nicole Patel is an engineer turned chocolatier which gives me hope that perhaps one day my engineer husband might too see the light and start a hot chocolate company. Obviously this is a good career move!
So Delysia makes two kinds of hot chocolate, lavender and cayenne (they even make their own vanilla or champagne marshmallows but unfortunately I didn’t have any on hand….the pictures of them on the website look incredible). I made myself a cup of the lavender, the first time I have ever had a lavender hot chocolate. What a great combination!
The recipe calls for 3-4 teaspoons of the powder mixed into a mug of hot milk. I added an extra teaspoon because my mug is pretty big. This makes a nice light hot chocolate but if you want it a bit richer I found adding 1-2 more teaspoons makes it even more luxurious. The lavender is nice and subtle. At first it is quite intriguing, you can smell it a little and it smells exactly like the beautiful lavender plant I have growing on my balcony. The lavender taste is subtle, which is good, and makes this very easy to drink. Between the smell of lavender and the taste of milk chocolate I find it very calming. This little container should get me through the first month of 2013 easily!
Verdict: Who would have thought that lavender and chocolate would go together….but they do…and really well! Even my ginger cat Colby was intrigued by the smell. Definitely worth a try, either at home (you can buy their products online) or in one of the growing number of coffee shops across Austin (and I suspect further away too) that will prepare it for you. www.delysia.com
