Fiery Zacatecas Hot Chocolate

My dear friend, Mario went to Zacatecas, a city in north central part of Mexico where his mom grew up. He spent few days there and brought back tons of goodies. One of the things he brought for me specifically is this big hunk-a-chunk of Zacatecas chocolate. I love Mario for thinking of me.

I love the packaging for this block of chocolate-it already has lots of history associated with it. According to my research, the City of Zecatecas became one of the most prolific cities in Mexico because they found silver there. Due to the mining, the city is rich in architecture, and commerce.

It is a really cold and rainy day here in Los Angeles today, so I decided to make Fiery Zacatecas Hot chocolate from the hunk-of-chunk chocolate that Mario brought me. It transported me to the exotic city- I can see, smell, and taste Zacatecas...

The recipe is simple.
1 cup of milk
1 oz of shredded Zacatecas bittersweet chocolate (or substitute with other bittersweet chocolate)
1/2 of hot red pepper, seeded.
1 cinnamon stick

Boil milk over medium heat with hot red pepper and 1 cinnamon stick until the milk infuses the flavor and starts to bubble. Add the shredded chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts.
Serves 1.


Unlike European chocolate, Zacatecas chocolate is smokey and gritty in flavor. It is bold and sweet. With the hot chili pepper, and the cinnamon, it sure warmed me up from head to toe. It almost felt like what tequila shot does to your body.

Thank you Mario for bring me back a flavor of Zacatecas. I would really like to visit in the near future