breadsandthreads: Thermos envy

Matt has had this thermos for years. It's the perfect size to bring a hot beverage to work in, and it keeps your drink warm all day. I have to admit, I've been a little jealous. Until one of my early weekend morning garage sale runs this fall, when I found an epic thermos for $3. This baby holds over a quart of warm deliciousness and probably will keep it warm until the apocalypse. The weather forcast for my Ultimate games last weekend was not too favorable, so I decided it was time to bring the big guy into service.

I've always had a sort of love/hate affair with hot chocolate. As a non-coffee drinker and only occasional tea drinker (because I feel like its good for me), hot chocolate has always been my drink of choice. I grew up drinking Swiss Miss out of the huge carton, and frequently ordered hot chocolate when my family went out to dinner. But unfortunately, there is a wide range of qualities. There's the gas station hot chocolate that tastes awesome for the first half, until you get to the cloying, grainy bits. There's the chalet hot chocolate that tastes good because you're freezing. And there's the hot chocolate at home from a mix that you stir into hot water. I didn't realize just how chocolate-confused I was until I lived with some French girls in Beijing, who were appalled that I made hot chocolate from water and a mix. My friend from Brittany then proceded to make me hot chocolate with whole milk. Epiphany! Milk from dried milk powder is nasty. Thus, hot chocolate made with milk powder (i.e. those from a mix to stir into water) will be nasty as well. My second epiphany occured in a Swiss grocery store, where the only hot chocolate mixes instruct the user to mix them into milk. So mix + milk is ok.

On another note, I think it's a scam that food companies can sell some things in boxes when it is so easy to make them yourself. Salad dressings, brownie mix, spaghetti sauce. Same for hot chocolate mix. So I set out to make my own hot chocolate mix to be mixed into milk for steamy cups of deliciousness. I made this recipe this weekend for my Ultimate tournaments, and it's a winner.