Today would be a great day to get a hot cup of chocolate or cocoa and celebrate National Cocoa Day. Each year on December 13th this national day occurs and helps to usher in the beginning of the winter holidays. Hot cocoa has long been made with cocoa powder, heated milk or water and sugar. On the other hand hot chocolate while often used in conjunction with hot cocoa is not necessarily the same thing since hot chocolate is made with cocoa butter, hot milk and drinking chocolate.
Cocoa beans were found to be very useful by the Aztecs in early civilization. Travelers from Mexico had helped bring the drink to civilizations around the world. Like many things the Europeans are credited with making the chocolate drink first created by the Mayans popular. However, that was only the beginning as cocoa would go through many more changes.
Hot chocolate has also been found to have health benefits. Because of the antioxidants that cocoa has it may be helpful in preventing cancer. The cocoa bean has been shown to be helpful with digestion as well as having positive effects on arterial health. Perhaps now that you know more about cocoa perhaps you are ready to share some with family and friends
There is no right way or wrong way to serve your guest up some hot chocolate. One of the fun and becomingly popular ways is to set up a hot chocolate bar. You can simply doing this by putting out a few ingredients such as marshmallow, and one or two more topping items or you can go to extremes and set up a bar that may contain any or all of these great ideas:
- Whipped cream
- Cinnamon and sugar
- Marshmallow
- candy canes
- caramel
- toffee bits
- coconut
- Peppermint Patties
- butterscotch candies, crushed
- candy sprinkles
- cinnamon cereal
- mini chocolate chips
- chopped nuts
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