The Luxury Of Hot Chocolate

Yummy beverage, anytime of the day...

A long time ago I discovered that if there’s any hot beverage I’d champion it would have to be hot chocolate. The taste of hot chocolate when made beautifully and diligently can be as luxurious as a cashmere shawl on a cold Winter’s day.

There aren’t many places in London where I can find hot chocolate that is well-balanced, not so sweet and not too much milk. In most cases I ask for a mug of hot chocolate and hope for the best. I am sometimes pleasantly surprised that the hot chocolate I am served in a restaurant or cafe is of the right blend and of course enjoyable.

I can never remember which eating places serve the best hot chocolate. But I can say that everytime I go for a meal I cannot wait to dive into a mug of hot chocolate that has oodles of cream on top and a rich chocolate taste. Now when I am served with that kind of hot chocolate all I can see and feel is the luxury of it all.

Hot chocolate came to England in the 17th Century. The English added milk to their chocolate and that was the birth of hot chocolate trendy as an after dinner beverage. Nowadays it is a drink that is available anytime of the day or night in eating establishments (most).

Here’s how we got to hot chocolate. I found this video from the History Channel to be most educational and fun to watch. It explains the origins of chocolate.

Mango: An Anytime Snack

‘

Simply delicious...best fruit snack ever

 

Mango is always a great filler during the day as a fruit snack. When I came to the UK I wasn’t really surprised to find mango fruit in London. I was grateful that I could still enjoy my favourite fruit here. When I realised I can buy mango fruit here I began to look out for other tropical fruit like pawpaw when I went shopping in supermarkets and local markets. Yes, I was able to find mango. These are not stringy which is great. I really enjoy mango whether it came as a fruit, in juice, icecream or some other kind of dessert. Just simply delicious!     

Sitting here this Sunday afternoon mango tasted absolutely delightful after lunch.     

Delightful...

 

As usual I reminisced about mango and yes, some really lovely happy memories about eating mango fruit at midnight on school holidays in December when mango fruit was in season. At night we’d listen out for the sound of mango fruits dropping on the ground outside our house whenever the flying foxes were around also enjoying a nocturnal feast of mango fruit. Their feeding frenzy knocked down the fruit from the branches so we also had our share of the lovely delightful fruit. We’d also collect the dropped mangos on the grass beneath the mango trees and snack on them all day long. Mango trees surrounded my family home when I was growing up on one of the most idyllic islands in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province. I guess mango fruit will always be a necessary part of my diet.     

It is a tropical fruit found throughout Papua  New Guinea, the Pacific and in Asia. There are a lot of varieties of the fruit some hybrid varieties have been developed in countries like Thailand. I first tasted mango juice and dried mango slices in the Philippines. It is such a versatile fruit.     

Mango is an exportable fruit for some countries in Asia and the Caribbean no doubt and perhaps from other tropical regions. That is why I am able to find it here in London and no doubt in Europe and America in supermarkets and farmers’ markets. It seems like a lucrative export industry. In fact I saw mango ‘plantations’ in Thailand and no doubt in the Philippines and acknowledge the fact that mango fruit from these trees must find their way to countries with temperate climes. It is a wonderful fruit wherever you can find it. Nowadays you can find it practically anywhere in the world.