AI-generated image
Trinidad cocoa tea
Cocoa tea: grated cocoa stick simmered with milk, cinnamon and bay leaf
In the cocoa-growing hills of Trinidad and Tobago, breakfast often starts with a mug of cocoa tea, made from home-rolled cocoa sticks or balls of ground roasted beans grated straight into the pot. Simmered with cinnamon, nutmeg and a bay leaf, then softened with milk and sugar, it tastes deeper and less sweet than shop hot chocolate, with a film of cocoa butter on top that everyone stirs back in. It is drunk with coconut bake, fry bake or hops bread. The mistake to avoid is a fast boil once the milk goes in, which scorches the bottom and makes it bitter. Chef's tip: whisk in a teaspoon of cornflour slaked in cold milk for the slightly thicker cocoa tea of Tobago grandmothers.
- Total time
- 20 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 2 ⅛ oz cocoa stick or ballfinely grated (or 40 g dark chocolate, 85% cocoa)
- 2 cups water
- 1 bay leaffresh or dried
- ¼ tsp nutmegfreshly grated
- 1 ¾ cups whole milk
- 3 tbsp soft brown sugarto taste
- 1 pinch salt
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Fresh ingredients (1)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/4 doneStep 1: Put 2 cups water, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 bay leaf in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes to flavour the water.
4 minStep 2: Whisk in 2 ⅛ oz cocoa stick or ball and keep simmering gently, whisking, for 5 minutes until it has fully melted and the liquid is dark and glossy with oil rising to the top.
5 minStep 3: Pour in 1 ¾ cups whole milk and add 3 tbsp soft brown sugar, ¼ tsp nutmeg and 1 pinch salt. Heat over a low flame, stirring, until steaming and just about to bubble at the edges; don't let it boil hard.
5 minStep 4: Take out the cinnamon and bay leaf, whisk hard for a few seconds to froth it, and pour into mugs.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 230 kcal
- Protein
- 8 g
- Carbs
- 26 g
- Fat
- 11 g
- Fibre
- 3 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does trinidad cocoa tea take?
- About 20 minutes in total: 5 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of cinnamon stick?
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon per stick.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Guava delight
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
Power pack
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Horchata de chufa
Horchata de chufa is the drink of Valencia's summer, sold ice-cold in the city's horchaterías with long, soft fartons pastries for dipping. It is made from chufas, or tiger nuts: small wrinkled tubers grown around the village of Alboraya just north of Valencia, which have their own protected designation of origin. Soaked, ground with water, strained and sweetened, they give a creamy, nutty, naturally dairy-free milk with a hint of cinnamon. Valencians drink it very cold, or half-frozen as 'granizada'. Chef's tip: soak the tiger nuts for a full 24 hours and change the water once; they must be plump and soft enough to blend into a fine pulp, or the horchata will be thin and taste of raw starch.
Spanish