Ask The Barista shares her tips on how to make the perfect mocha at home, including a great recipe for brewing your own delicious mocha.
Q: I’m a sucker for chocolate and coffee. What’s the trick to making the perfect mocha at home? A: It’s no secret that chocolate and coffee make a fabulous pair. As a chocolate and coffee lover myself, making mochas at home is an easy way to save some change and satisfy your chocolate craving. Here’s a Few Easy Tricks:1. Fresh Coffee: It is important to use freshly roasted beans to avoid a stale, burnt flavor. It takes a whole lot of chocolate and cream to hide the taste of coffee that’s gone bad (remember, coffee only has a two week shelf life).2. Let’s Talk Chocolate: Don’t skimp on ingredients. Save the cheap chocolate syrup for your ice cream! Your at-home mocha should be home to real chocolate. I’m a fan of this dark chocolate bar from Seattle Chocolates, but feel free to use your own personal favorite. 3. Make It Your Own: If you want to get experimental, try adding chocolate or cocoa powder to freshly ground coffee in its filter before brewing for a more infused chocolate taste.4. Keep It Classy: The choices of chocolate and coffee pairings are limitless! For a classic mocha taste, try a dark roast blend and pair it with a simple dark chocolate or cocoa powder.Bonus Tip: Try our new Make a Mocha Box. It pairs freshly roasted coffee with artisan drinking chocolates. We hand pick coffees with chocolate tasting notes so they blend beautifully with the chocolate. It’s the perfect gift for any mocha lover!
Creative Chocolate & Coffee PairingsFor a salted mocha, try a combination of Lighthouse’s Roaster’s Choice and Seattle Chocolate’s San Juan Sea Salt. To satisfy your fruity and chocolate needs, go for an African coffee like Slate Coffee Roaster’s Ethiopia Guji and Jcoco’s PB&J inspired Peanut Strawberry Baobob. If you’re dreaming about the holidays, Fonte’s Portofino Blend and Seattle Chocolate’s Meltaway Mint is a nice creamy cup that will remind you of Christmas morning. Lastly, Fundamental Coffee Co.’s Kenya Kirinyaga and Jcoco’s Cayenne Veracruz Orange make a velvety white mocha with a spicy kick. I’ve found this one perfect for Monday mornings when I need that slap-me-in-the-face or dump-cold-water-on-me kind of wake me up. Monday’s are hard, people.
Simple Mocha Recipe
- 1 cup of brewed coffee
- 4 tablespoons of your favorite chocolate bar shavings or cocoa powder (roughly 1/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup of cream or milk
You can make this work with any amount of milk or chocolate as long as you keep it roughly 2 parts milk to 1 part chocolate.From here, it’s pretty easy! Brew 8 oz. of coffee with your regular brew method. Add your chocolate into your milk and heat it up slowly using a double broiler or microwave. If melting in a microwave, heat the mixture for 30 second intervals and stir, until creamy and fully combined.Add the warm chocolate and milk mixture to your coffee and enjoy!
- Add whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top to simulate a fancy coffee-shop mocha (mmmm).
- Add a shot of Baileys Irish Creme, whiskey, or your favorite liquor for a very “grown up” mocha drink (double mmmm).
- If you have an espresso machine, the “traditional” Italian mocha drink involves simply layering a shot of espresso, cold cream and, finally, shaved or melted chocolate on top– no mixing! Then you drink the espresso through a layer of cream and chocolate.
Get creative, have fun barista-ing at home, and let me know if you discover any amazing pairs or recipes of your own!
