How to hot cocoa bar?

January 5, 2022 1:11 AM

What is the best set up for an outdoor hot cocoa bar? Last year I made an Ina Garten recipe for hot chocolate and put it in a big thermos with a pump. The chocolate ended up settling so the guests were pumping out this overly sweet and overly chocolatey sludge.

I don't really want to go the dry mix route because it doesn't seem... "gourmet" enough? but are there other options or other hot recipes that don't separate? I thought about a slow cooker recipe but my slow cooker is tiny and having guests ladle seems like it would be really slow and messy.

posted by simplethings to Food & Drink (17 answers total)

Best answer: As your vat of hot cocoa/chocolate cools, the settling you experienced is inevitable. Your best bet is going to be providing hot water from something like a plugged-in water boiler that maintains the water at a specific temperature, and then having guests mix their own a la minute. (Milk starts to form a skin at temperatures below the lowest "keep warm" temperature of the water boilers I've worked with, I'd be wary of trying to keep it hot for too long. But fancy drinking chocolates often call for water instead of milk, and still taste plenty rich because they're highlighting the high quality of the chocolate being used.)

Since you mention wanting it to feel "gourmet," I would look into "hot chocolate on a stick" (example: Ticket Chocolates' sticks), or "hot chocolate bombs" (example: Bombombs' bombs). If you have some skill with chocolate and candymaking, you can even make your own hot chocolate bomb or make your own hot chocolate on a stick.

For bonus gourmet points, you can also make your own marshmallows! (Or buy the fancy square cut ones from your local gourmet store/candy shop.)

Another option that's a step up from the dry mix are drinking chocolates. These are the kind of hot chocolate that gets served in those little 2 oz demitasse mugs because it's so incredibly rich. You'd still need to provide hot water and stirrers for mixing, though, I wouldn't try to make a drinking chocolate ahead of time for a crowd and then try to keep it warm, you'll have similar problems with cooling.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 2:08 AM on January 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

Putting it in a crock pot and having guests paddle is the best way to go. I bet there’s a neighbor or someone on a local but nothing group who would be happy to lend one for a few days.
posted by raccoon409 at 3:06 AM on January 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

Best answer: If this is the Ina Garten recipe you are using, I would not use the milk chocolate or chopped up bittersweet chocolate she suggests, because the fats in those chocolates, milk fat and cocoa butter respectively, are not homogenized in the hot chocolate when they melt, unlike the fat in the whole milk and in the cream, and I’d bet that's what’s driving the separation.

I’d replace those chocolates with a premium defatted chocolate powder, add half a cup of milk and half a cup of cream to replace their fats, but nothing to replace their sugar because that recipe looks way, way too sweet to me.

I make a version of that without cream and nothing ever separates, even when I refrigerate the leftovers.
posted by jamjam at 3:06 AM on January 5, 2022 [13 favorites]

I'd go with a similar recipe, use either a portable stove/hotplate or crockpot to keep it hot, and let people ladle it.

As other folks mentioned, having a bar with toppings (whipped cream, marshmallows, cinnamon, chocolate shavings, chocolate bars, chopped hazlenuts, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, etc, etc) goes a long way to making it feel fancy.
posted by wesleyac at 4:11 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Many gourmet hot cocoas come in powdered form. As a connoisseur, I think these are better than overly syrupy recipes, in fact. Post or MeMail me your location and I can possibly suggest specific brands. Then go with a water boiler like Pandora Kouti suggests, have a nice container and measuring implement for the gourmet cocoa powder, print up a solid instruction card (like the name tags for assigned seating at a wedding reception - good card stock, readable but nice font), and have real metal rather than plastic little demitasse spoons for stirring to help it feel fancier.
posted by eviemath at 5:07 AM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Make a big bowl of chocolate ganache (equal ounces of chopped chocolate and very hot cream stirred together until smooth) and put hot water or milk in the thermos to thin it to their desired consistency. If you have vegans attending, you can sub the butter in the ganache with the cream from the top of canned coconut milk (NOT presweetened cream of coconut). When I've had to make large amounts of vegan ganache, I go to a restaurant supply store (in my area they are called Cash n Carry) and get the giant cans instead of using a ton of the little 14 oz ones.

I make my own hot chocolate this way, using half 70% dark chocolate and half semisweet. Hot chocolate (with whole chocolate containing cocoa butter) and hot cocoa (made with cocoa powder, which doesn't have cocoa butter) are both nice, but I prefer hot chocolate myself.
posted by ananci at 5:32 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

If you want to go all out, rent something like this commercial hot chocolate machine that stirs the drink and keeps it hot. I don't think this is a complete slam dunk kind of thing for a catering/party rental place to have, though, so you might need to call around to a couple different party rental places to find one.
posted by mskyle at 5:48 AM on January 5, 2022

Best answer: When I was a barista, I was shocked to discover that our little shop's much-celebrated, crowd-pleasing hot cocoa was literally just store-bought chocolate milk heated up with the espresso machine milk steamer and topped with whopped cream and chocolate syrup. It never goes sludgy. We kept gallons of it in the kitchen fridge. You can test-run the idea by heating up a mug of whole milk with a couple of tablespoons of chocolate syrup.

If I had two crockpot warmers, I'd do that and one that's gourmet (more dark and less sweet) and dole them both out with ladles. And in the array, I'd definitely include some caramel syrup to stir in or drizzle on top.
posted by mochapickle at 5:52 AM on January 5, 2022 [13 favorites]

Adding lecithin might help. More to read on Serious Eats's piece about homemade hot chocolate mix.
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:04 AM on January 5, 2022

Also, if you live in anything but a tiny town, I would bet good money there is at least one person nearby with an unused bigger crockpot they'd love to get rid of if you ask in any kind of neighborhood group.
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:06 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

For an outdoor party, you do want a thermos pump, not a crockpot or elaborate plug in machine. Get and heat a commercial whole-milk chocolate milk. It will be perfect.
posted by shadygrove at 6:25 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Heated commercial chocolate milk actually sounds more delicious than most hot chocolates I've had! To make it feel fancy, you could make a batch of cute small cookies with a slot that fits the cup rims.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:55 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I've used a vacuum growler for hot cocoa. It might work better than a pump- or spout-based dispenser, as the contents naturally get stirred a little when you pour, and you can easily shake it up if they need more mixing. (The disadvantage is that you need to be able to lift it, so you can't store as much in a single container.)
posted by mbrubeck at 8:01 AM on January 5, 2022

FWIW, there are hot cocoa makers on Amazon. Though I'd imagine you'd need something BIGGER than this 32-oz version.
posted by kschang at 8:49 AM on January 5, 2022

As someone who had a crock pot of hot spiced cider out for the neighbors for Halloween, crock pots are not an ideal vessel for such things. No matter how careful folks are, you end up with dribbles everywhere, you need somewhere to put the dirty ladle, everything gets sticky and gross, and it doesn't take long for the amount of liquid to get too shallow for a ladle to be effective.

If you can find a non-sludging recipe, I'd consider a dispenser with a spigot at the bottom, maybe? Not sure if the cocoa would be too thick to flow.
posted by misskaz at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

FWIW, this is a commercial quality hot cocoa maker/dispenser with internal heating and stirring mechanisms, thermostat to adjust how hot you want it, and 10L capacity. However, it's also $600+ USD.

If this is for small occasions, I'd check into local catering companies on if you can rent one from them for a day or two.
posted by kschang at 11:55 AM on January 5, 2022

I use a battery-powered milk frother to mix/emulsify my powdered hot chocolate (and I find I need it to de-sludge hot chocolate bombs as well). As long as nobody licks it, it should be fine to share.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:37 PM on January 5, 2022