Jamaican hot chocolate recipe – This rich, dense beverage is served during breakfast, made from roasted chocolate balls and sweetened to taste.
This Jamaican hot chocolate is a true favourite of mine. I love this recipe so much that I think it’s time that I shared my family method of making “tea”. If you like Chocolate that is rich, dense and packs a punch then you need to seriously try some of this hot beverage.
I remember growing up my mother and grandmother used to whip up a batch of tea during winter. Living in the UK it wasn’t so easy to obtain the chocolate balls/sticks needed to make this recipe.
When I did get hold of some it became a very rare diaspora treat. For some reason my most fondest memories of Jamaican hot chocolate was centred around Christmas.
We would serve our national dish along side a hot cup of chocolate tea. Right before we were allowed to open our Christmas presents.
Living in the diaspora sometimes feels as if these old traditions like how to make traditional hot chocolate is becoming a dying trend. This is the reason why I am even more determined to shared what little knowledge I have, thanks to the women in my family
What is Jamaican hot chocolate?
Jamaican hot chocolate sometimes known as cocoa tea or chocolate tea is a breakfast drink made from grated chocolate balls (see picture below).
It is NOT the same as Western hot chocolate that is in it’s powdered form. They aren’t remotely the same and the taste is a complete contrast to what you’re probably used to (if you’re not from the Islands).
There’s this unique slick of oil that stay suspended on top of the chocolate when it’s made, that let’s you know this is the real island deal.
The process of making chocolate
In order to make the chocolate balls, the seeds are extracted from the cacao pods and left to dry out for roughly a week in the blazing out sunshine. This is done to not only increase the taste of the chocolate but also to remove it’s moisture.
The seeds are then roasted and ground using a mortar and pestle and then moulded into golf balls sized chocolate and sold.
Once moulded the chocolate is typical grated, boiled in water, milk, sweetened and flavoured with spices – cinnamon, nutmeg
The rest of the Caribbean
Most of the Caribbean islands, more specifically the English speaking Islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, Dominica, Grenada just to name a few also refer to it as Chocolate tea.
Some of these Islands tend to add a thickener such as flour and additional spices like star anise and bay leaves.
How to make Jamaican hot chocolate – vegan style
In order to make true chocolate tea, you will need to get hold of some chocolate balls. I got mine from here , you cannot use cacao powder or any other powdered chocolate as it won’t replicate the results.
Grate the chocolate – the chocolate balls need to be grated before we can make tea. Two balls are more than enough and they are very easy to breakdown in a matter of minutes. I like to also grate my fresh nutmeg into the chocolate and mix them together.
Boiling the water – Before adding the fine chocolate, bring the water to the boil. I do this and add a cinnamon stick to the water. If you can get hold of some cinnamon leaves, even better, go ahead and use those!!
Milk and sweetener – As this is a vegan recipe my choice of milk is almond milk. You can use coconut milk if you wish and I also use condensed coconut milk with a small amount of coconut sugar and sweeten to taste.
Straining the chocolate tea – It’s best to strain as you’re serving the tea, just balance a sieve over each cup as you’re pouring out the tea to get rid of the grit.
Notes and tips
- Feel free to add any additional spices along with the cinnamon and nutmeg
- Use any plant based milk that you see fit – almond and coconut work best
- Discard the cinnamon leaves/stick prior to serving
- Don’t forgot to strain the tea
- Use my vegan Condensed Milk if you want to.
- Suitable for vegans, paleo approved and no gluten
The steps
Use a grater box to grate both of the roasted chocolate balls
Grate the nutmeg into the fin chocolate and add a cinnamon stick to a saucepan of water and bring to the boil
Pour and stir the chocolate and nutmeg into the pot of boiling water
Pour in the almond milk and sweeten to taste
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Jamaican hot chocolate
Ingredients
- 2 chocolate balls
- 3 cups of water
- 2 cups of almond milk can use coconut milk
- 1 tsp worth of fresh nutmeg grated
- 1 cinnamon stick or leaves if you want one
- Vegan condensed milk sweeten to taste
- 2 tbsp of coconut sugarl
Instructions
- Grate both of the roasted chocolate balls into a fine powder on a plate.
- Also grate the nutmeg and combine with the chocolate
- Bring the water along with the cinnamon stick to the boil for 5 minutes in a saucepan.
- Reduce to medium heat and mix in to the chocolate and pour in the almond milk
- Allow the chocolate to simmer for 10 minutes then use a slotted spoon to discard the cinnamon
- sweeten to taste with the coconut sugar and vegan condensed milk
- Strain and pour the chocolate into a mug and serve
Nutrition
Thank you for the recipe. I have chocolate balls that my mother-in-law gave me. However, I hope you can tell me if they are supposed to smell like detergent. Since I am not sure whether this is the way they are supposed to smell, I prefer to wait until I am sure. Thank you.
Hi Bea. No the chocolate balls definitely shouldn’t smell like detergent. They yield a very strong smell of chocolate. I’m guessing your mother-in-law may have stored the balls near some detergent where the balls have drawn the smell. The only thing I can suggest to combat your issue is to rinse the balls in tepid water or leave them to sit for 15 minutes (they won’t melt) and blot them dry. Hopefully this will remove the smell.
Thanks for this recipie. I bought Chocolate tea sticks on vacation as a souvenir. I had no idea how to utilize this product until now. I enjoy looking at my photos and sipping on a tasty souvenir of my travels. Thanks again for this recipie and I’m looking forward to another adventure in Jamaica!
Hi Tina. Chocolate tea is a true favourite of mine. You will certainly enjoy your tea when you make it, definitely evokes memories of the tropics. Enjoy!!