Review - Fran's Dark Hot Chocolate

On my last trip up to San Francisco, I came across Fran's Dark Hot Chocolate in a grocery store. After spending the last few days working on a sugar-free, healthy hot chocolate recipe (for a future blog post), this one was a real treat!

Fran's Chocolate is a chocolatier out of Seattle, Washington. I'd seen some of their chocolates assortments, but until now, did not know they made a drinking chocolate.

The ingredients list is nice and simple, so I was expecting a pretty good hot chocolate. Opening the tin and checking it out also raised my hopes. It was nice, very fragrant and crumbly.

To find out a little more about the chocolate, I wrote to Fran's Chocolates. They kindly answered all my questions. I'm having good luck contacting chocolatiers lately, after also being able to contact someone at Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates a while back.

I was informed that they source only the finest premium chocolate made from the highest quality cacao beans. Felchlin is the chocolate supplier they use for their Dark Hot Chocolate.

In fact, their Dark Hot Chocolate was the winner of the sofi™ Outstanding Hot Beverage Award in 2007. Pretty cool! (Another hot chocolate I've reviewed also won the same award in 2011.)

I made their hot chocolate using milk and followed the instructions perfectly. Wow, what a great hot chocolate! Rich and chocolaty, no complex flavors here. Not very dark, and very creamy and milky.

I'd suggest if you want a breakfast variety, try cutting the amount of chocolate in half. It's pretty rich, definitely more of an after dinner drink.

I would definitely recommend picking this up if you come across it, or ordering some if you just want a great quality, tasty hot chocolate on hand. My only complaint is how small the tin is. Following the instructions, you'd probably only get 4-5 cups out of it. But then again, maybe that's just me. Perhaps I just want too much of a good thing.

The kind folks at Fran's also sent along their recipe for making an Iced Drinking Chocolate:

¾ cup milk
8 tbsp Fran’s Dark Hot Chocolate

In a saucepan bring the milk to a simmer. Add the chocolate and whisk until smooth and melted. Remove from heat and serve immediately or place in ice bath, stirring occasionally until cool. Pour over ice and enjoy!

If anyone gives it a shot, please let me know what you think of it!