Hot chocolate or hot cocoa? what is the difference and how is prepared in different regions

That's how she comes along. Especially in the cold season just the right thing to warm up again and feel like a child again. A hot chocolate.  

But under a hot chocolate everyone understands something different: For some it is simply a hot chocolate milk, which is prepared with milk and chocolate powder. For others, it's a preparation of hot milk and cocoa - perhaps with a little sugar for sweetness. The last known way is to dissolve chocolate in hot milk. Here, the chocolate can be white, milk or bitter, and may also be flavored or mixed with other ingredients.

Basically, we can say that in the case of hot chocolate any cocoa products and hot milk or even hot water are the ingredients.

If we believe the ancient traditions, the cocoa was consumed in prehistoric times, but not in the chocolate form, as is common today, but rather in a kind of bitter drink, the archetype of hot chocolate. So, we follow in our own footsteps, so to speak, when we treat ourselves to a mug of hot chocolate.

If you want to prepare hot chocolate, you should know that the melting point of a bar or a piece of chocolate is just under 33 degrees. So, you don't have to bring the milk to the boil and thus burn it, our body temperature would be perfectly sufficient. Of course, you can also serve it even warmer, just as you like.

Depending on the area, you can find the most diverse preparation methods today. In Tunisia, for example, you could almost think you're drinking or spooning a chocolate pudding that's a little too runny, so thick is the hot chocolate served there.  

In the chocolate nation of Switzerland, as well as in France, Austria, Italy and even in Great Britain, real chocolate is used in the preparation. Depending on the region, this is then poured and melted with pure hot milk, hot water or a mixture of both. Sometimes you will also find a spoonful or two of sugar or whipped cream in the chocolate. In Italy, Spain and Austria, you can also find more viscous variants, which then remind more of a pudding, as in Tunisia.

Decoration may not be missing, of course. Here, either cream, chocolate, marshmallows or milk foam can be used.  

In some countries, such as Mexico, the chocolate is not found in its pure cocoa form, but mixed with spices such as cinnamon. Also flavoring with vanilla is already known. Chili to the aggravation of the thing is certainly also one or the other already times run over the way.

In addition, of course, by adding more spices or even flavors, some other flavors can be realized: Latte Macchiato with a little more milk and coffee, strawberries with dried strawberry pieces or flavor, gingerbread flavor.... The choice is as wide as the choice in the chocolate bars themselves.

Less flavor - rather another preparation option is mixing with alcoholic beverages. The Lumumba (cocoa with rum) or Russian chocolate (brandy or vodka) should thus be reserved for adults.