A friend of mine, growing up in the Dominican Republic, would awaken on her birthday to the song Las Mañanitas and a cup of hot chocolate. I want to adopt this cultural practice of starting the day with my belly full of warm chocolate!
One of my favorite travel memories comes from my time in Paris when our hotel would serve us fresh-from-the-oven croissants and individual pots of chocolat chaud. I am salivating just remembering how wonderful it was to start to the day with this buttery, flaky pastry and my own silver carafe filled with liquid Parisian chocolate? Each of the mornings I spent there felt like my birthday — just being in Paris is enough to celebrate after all.
Hot Chocolate Creativity
Nonetheless, we can’t have this excellent experience every day in most parts of the world. So, instead, I offer the following few exciting hot chocolate recipes for you to try if you want to add this idea into your birthday fun.
This spicy hot chocolate from the New York Times has chile powder too:
Or People shared chocolatier Jacques Torres’s recipe for a minty hot chocolate:
For a little added boost to your morning, you could start with a Kahlua hot chocolate such as this one from Damn Delicious:
Another boozy one that is supposed to taste like a foil-wrapped chocolate orange comes from serious eats:
Or, for hot days when you still want some cocoa taste, you could try this Frozen Nutella hot chocolate:
Combining two of my favorites is this chocolate and peanut butter hot chocolate recipe (plus, I love this site’s name: chocolatemoosey.com):
For your entertainment, also, I end this blog with a Minions parody of the best-known Latin American birthday song.
Birthdays are Best 