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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on November 30, 2009 at 2:22pm

First I start with my own chocolate sauce. For spiced mochas I use my own blend of 6Tbl Vietnamese cassia cinnamon, 1tsp Jamaica allspice, 1tsp ceyenne pepper. I pull the shot into the choco-sauce then whisk (long narrow Rattleware whisks made just for this purpose). The cinnamon blend is steamed into the milk, which fully wakes up the spices. The amount of cin' blend? Have this little measuring spoon called a "tad" IIRC (or maybe it was the "pinch" spoon, now not sure!), one level for 8oz, two for 12, three for 16.

I used to blend the cin' blend into the chocolate sauce and squeeze bottle it. However, I find steaming the spices in the milk makes for a better drink.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on November 30, 2009 at 2:44pm

Sounds delicious, Mike... thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on November 30, 2009 at 4:53pm

What's (somewhat, possibly, to somebody) interesting is I'm using the same spice blend for spiced ciders instead of just cinnamon. I up the spice amount by one tiny spoon for same size versus for spiced mocha.

Brady said:

Sounds delicious, Mike... thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Brady on November 30, 2009 at 5:54pm

I bet that's great. To digress slightly, have you ever played around with different spice sources? I was at a Penzey's store earlier in the year and they had 4 or 5 different cinnamons/cassias. Amazing the differences that there were between the different regions, though I guess not surprising given our experiences with our main product...

I've been toying with adding a "Mayan" Hot Chocolate/Mocha to the menu for a while... my wife bought me a tin of it many years ago and it is great stuff. Will try your recipe.

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Permalink Reply by Logan Demmy on December 1, 2009 at 2:50pm

Brady said:

I bet that's great. To digress slightly, have you ever played around with different spice sources? I was at a Penzey's store earlier in the year and they had 4 or 5 different cinnamons/cassias. Amazing the differences that there were between the different regions, though I guess not surprising given our experiences with our main product...

Got to love living near Columbus, its amazing what the different cinnamon have to offer.

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Permalink Reply by LJ Randall on December 1, 2009 at 5:05pm

I've tried a number of mixes, but our best Mexican Mocha was made from scratch. Ghirardelli sweetened cocoa powder (or sauce, but the powder gives more richness) mixed with steamed milk, then add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a dash of Chipotle powder, pull a double shot and add it last.

The powdered chipotle can be found with the spices at cooking stores or some grocery stores. It gives less heat than Cayenne, but adds a nice smoky undertone. Yum.

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on December 1, 2009 at 6:44pm

I too like the Ghirardeli ground chocolate powder and use it for the beginning of my sauce, plus dark chocolate melties, bit of powdered sugar and touch of Almond extract.

Agree chipotle can be nice for a smoked jalepeno pepper touch. But to use it to reduce heat, why that's just for American sissies! :-)

LJ Randall said:

I've tried a number of mixes, but our best Mexican Mocha was made from scratch. Ghirardelli sweetened cocoa powder (or sauce, but the powder gives more richness) mixed with steamed milk, then add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a dash of Chipotle powder, pull a double shot and add it last.

The powdered chipotle can be found with the spices at cooking stores or some grocery stores. It gives less heat than Cayenne, but adds a nice smoky undertone. Yum.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on December 1, 2009 at 7:27pm

Wow, miKe your version scored high marks, thanks for sharing. The gang here would have to be sleeping at the wheel not to take notes.

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

First I start with my own chocolate sauce. For spiced mochas I use my own blend of 6Tbl Vietnamese cassia cinnamon, 1tsp Jamaica allspice, 1tsp ceyenne pepper. I pull the shot into the choco-sauce then whisk (long narrow Rattleware whisks made just for this purpose). The cinnamon blend is steamed into the milk, which fully wakes up the spices. The amount of cin' blend? Have this little measuring spoon called a "tad" IIRC (or maybe it was the "pinch" spoon, now not sure!), one level for 8oz, two for 12, three for 16.

I used to blend the cin' blend into the chocolate sauce and squeeze bottle it. However, I find steaming the spices in the milk makes for a better drink.

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Permalink Reply by christopher myers on April 19, 2010 at 12:16pm

A good small double Mexican mocha is still my favorite drink. I know, maybe I should have evolved to capps or something by now, but I gotta go with my gut. Making your own sauce in the morning definitely sounds like the way to go, and we'll do that for sure when we open up our co-op.

What is the consensus for which hot spice to use? I'd been using paprika, just cause that's what I had to work with, but what about compared to cayenne, chili powder, chipotle, etc? Chipotle's sounding pretty good...

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