One Thing I Ate: The Dalgona Chocolate Milk Mocha ☕🍫
Releasing some rocket fuel to you to power you through the end of year.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I am writing this post fueled on instant coffee and chocolate syrup so it will last as long as my sugar high does. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.
Hello friends! This weekend I should be on vacation BUT I wanted to send you a letter anyways, as I have created something too powerful for this world. It is simple, yet divine, almost grotesque in its beauty. It has the ability to fuel me through a trip to take the garbage down six flights, or even writing a last minute newsletter. Which means it most certainly can fuel you through the last hours of your holiday prep, whatever holiday you may be prepping for. That is why I felt that a great urgency in releasing this beast to you, despite trying to take time off.
Best of all, it requires a mere three ingredients you can find at any grocery store: Chocolate syrup, whole milk, and instant coffee.
That’s right. I may have watched 100 hours of James Hoffman when I was going through a 3-month hyperfixation on artisanal coffee-making, but I’m not above making a good ole’ Dalgona coffee. While I really despise drinking instant coffee as it’s meant to be drunk (as an American-style tall coffee), IMO it makes an excellent coffee beverage base or substitute for espresso. Can I appreciate a beautiful, floral coffee bean? Yes! But am I a coffee snob? No. And most of all, am I really just after that beautiful sugar and caffeine high? Hell yeah. So this beverage delivers. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself.
The Dalgona Chocolate Milk Mocha ☕🍫
Serves 1.
This recipe is so simple yet delicious I can’t believe it just occurred to me to make it for the first time this week. It literally tastes like cold chocolate milk but even better because it’s got a note of caramel-y coffee. I feel like instant coffee tastes too burnt and bitter on its own but in this drink it’s perfect. Also it wakes me up like a kick in the pants, which no one should ever do to me.
1 tsp instant coffee (the Whole Foods brand is my favorite, it’s actually quite good)*
1 tsp brown sugar (despite the syrup being sweet, you want to flavor the coffee itself a bit. So if you want to cut back on sugar, I’d rather you reduce the chocolate syrup.)
2 tbs hot but not boiling water
4-6oz whole milk*
1 tbs chocolate syrup (Midnight Moo from Trader Joe’s is the GOAT, Hershey’s Syrup also works, but definitely NOT homemade it’s gotta be store bought)
Tall glass filled with ice
In a small cup, use a wire frother to whisk together instant coffee, brown sugar, and hot water. You wanna do this until it becomes foamy and silky. It’s going to take a bit of time, but don’t worry about it.
Next, fill a pretty glass with ice. Drizzle chocolate syrup up the sides, about a tablespoon. Make it pretty. Pour desired amount of whole milk into glass.
Pour frothy coffee over top, add a nice chilled metal straw, stir and serve.
*I prefer Lactaid for obvious reasons and the taste works well here
** The original recipe for Dalgona coffee uses TWO TABLESPOONS of instant coffee which feels insane to me because that would literally jetset me straight to Mars even though I drink a doubleshot of espresso everyday. I find that a teaspoon is just fine but you can use a tablespoon if you want.
Happy holidays!
Soph
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