Made an Earl Grey Hot Chocolate
10th December 2023 - New Experience Number 35
Earl grey hot chocolate. Like you perhaps did on reading that, I wrinkled my nose up at the idea of this. I like hot chocolate. I like earl grey tea. But would the two really work well together? I decided to give it a go and find out.
Recipe For Success - Or Should That Be Excess?!
I adapted a recipe that I found on line. I didn’t follow it to the ‘tea’, and I’ve no idea about the calorie content, although I can safely say it was definitely very high!
It was straightforward to make, although took a little longer than your average hot chocolate due to the brewing time.
Ingredients For My Earl Grey Hot Chocolate
The following made three delicious and over-indulgent earl grey hot chocolates. I had only intended to make two, but due to my gung-ho approach to measuring for this make, I had enough for an extra mug.
- 2 cups of milk – I used semi skimmed
- Half a cup of double cream
- A full 200g bar of dark chocolate chopped up- you could use milk chocolate if you prefer
- 4 decaffeinated earl grey tea bags
- 2 teaspoons of sugar – add them one at a time and check the sweetness level is right for you
- A pinch of salt – yes, really!
- Squirty cream in a can
- Marshmallows
The Rough Step By Step Guide To How I Made Earl Grey Hot Chocolate
Step 1
Firstly I warmed the milk and cream together. This took ages as I had it on a very low heat. I didn’t want the liquid to boil and I didn’t want to burn the pan so I was overly cautious. If you’re going to be watching over it you can probably go to a higher temperature.
Step 2
Once the cream and milk were slightly steaming and bubbles were forming around the edge of the pan, I turned the heat off and added the earl grey tea bags which I left in for 10 minutes to infuse
Step 3
After the 10 minutes, I gave the tea bags a good squeeze and then took them out of the liquid. I put the pan of infused milk and cream back on a gentle heat, added the sugar, chopped chocolate and a little pinch of salt. I kept a watchful eye and regularly stirred the ingredients.
Step 4
Once the chocolate had melted into the cream and milk and I’d had a cheeky little teaspoon tester (for quality control purposes of course!), it was ready! I filled up two glasses and topped them off with a good squirt of whipped cream and a couple of marshmallows.
Tea-riffic Tasting Earl Grey Hot Chocolate
The taste was different. By different I don’t mean it was unpleasant. In fact it was really quite nice! If you don’t like earl grey you probably won’t agree!
It was certainly like a hot chocolate, yet it also had slightly fragrant, citrus, undertones.
Not quite the depth of flavour as an orange hot chocolate, but a lighter tasting infusion that the Other Half gave a big thumbs up to!
A Highly Indulgent Treat
This was a ridiculously decadent and rich drink, and definitely not something to have every day. We had to have some savoury treats afterwards to restore some semblance of balance after such a sugary overload. I’m sure I could tinker with the recipe a bit and make it perhaps slightly marginally less sweet, but as a one off indulgent treat, it’s a tea-mendous chocolatey delight!
Want To Try It Yourself?
You can try and follow my very hodge-podge recipe, or adapt it so that it works for you.
Alternatively, and perhaps a better option, is to take a look on line for some more professional instructions. There are several recipes out there for it.
Cost Of Experience
The total cost of all of the ingredients came to just under £5 in December 2023.
Of course it will depend on where you shop and whether you already have any of the ingredients in your store cupboard.
Recommendations
If you don’t like earl grey, don’t bother making this. It tastes like earl grey so you probably won’t like it.
I haven’t tried this yet, but it could perhaps work with instant hot chocolate if you add in a tea bag for a couple of minutes. Let me know if you give that a go!
If you want to go even more indulgent and home made, you could always whip the topping cream yourself and even make your own marshmallows!
I used decaffeinated earl grey tea bags as we had them in. You can of course use fully caffeinated ones. If you’ve got something to put them in you could always try loose leaf tea too.
Don’t let your liquid boil.
To slightly reduce the calorificness, you could leave out the whipped cream and marshmallow topping.
Adjust the number of tea bags you use to make the earl grey flavour either more subtle or stronger.
Let me know if you give it a go and what you think of it.
Don’t forget to take some pictures of your hot chocolate creation!