Mug shots

It is midwinter, and I feel the call of hot chocolate. I actually stopped by Marks & Spencer this morning with the sole purpose of buying cream to spoon on top of the chocolate which I shall be making this evening ..... I'm a woman with a mission and no-one better get in my way! What I'm talking about here doesn't come from a sachet; it's not thin and watery and insipid, nor is it particularly milky. It is intensely, fragrantly dark, rich and luscious. To paraphrase the advert, "This is not just hot chocolate, this is generous quantities of Green & Black's Organic 72% cocoa solids Cooks' Chocolate, melted with the gentle heat of the Aga's warming plate and blended into full fat milk until smooth before being laced with brandy and garnished with West Country Extra Thick Double Cream". To be drunk with a guilty but happy expression while sitting in Cholesterol Corner.

The mug it's to be drunk from is almost as important as the contents - nothing 'fine' will do as I reserve that for tea which I like to be very weak. But properly strong coffee and chocolate demand a robust presence in earthenware, or a generous shape at least. The Emma Bridgewater ones here are used for our breakfast coffee every day, and the labrador theme seems to dominate:

The children have their favourites, too. Alice, sophisticate that she is, alternates between Bunnykins and Penguin Books -

William, who while on CCF army camp got a taste for very strong sweet tea and then mixed it with coffee to invent "Toffee", goes for something plain in masculine black -

 

Harriet is a hot choc girl, (though she takes it without the sinful additions), but she likes hers in a small Nicholas Mosse mug which we bought for her in Ireland complete with her own mini whisk for mixing:

I know of at least two places here in Edinburgh where top class hot chocolate can be found, and they are Plaisir du Chocolat and Centotre, but for me the 'best of the best' award has to go to Angelina in the Rue de Rivoli, Paris, where the 'chocolat Africain' is unbeatable.

However, as darkness falls on this (almost) shortest day of the year, my own fireside with my chunky Tamara Hedderwick mug full of deliciousness will do nicely.

Comments

[natalie]

Karen you have been tagged!
It's a way of connecting up otherwise unconnected blogs and finding new ones. To join in, visit my blog and read the instructions.
I'm a Horlicks girl myself...

[Fiberjoy]

Your mug has the most personality. :-)

I'm astonished at your reference to "toffee". My son recently told me of this concoction enjoyed by employees where he works.

[peg]

Who knew reading blogs could make a person thirsty? Jo was drinking Chardonnay and now this sinful, but delicious, sounding hot chocolate. Makes my cup of decaf coffee sound rather lame!

[Fiberjoy]

I hope you don't terribly mind, but...

RUN! TAG, You're IT!

Please see my blog for details. Don't worry about doing it right away, it took me a week to figure out what to write.

Fiberjoy

[Nan]

And I use Green & Black's "organic hot chocolate drink with our bittersweet dark chocolate." :<) They are the best company. I've always been a dark choc girl even before they started saying it was good for you. Everyone in my family favors milk chocolate so this cocoa is all mine!

I love the mugs, especially the Penguin, and the dogs.