Hot Chocolate Cubes and Tablets

Growing up I drank Ovaltine, Quik or Swiss Miss hot chocolate. Fast forward into my adult years, I don’t touch powdered chocolate even if it’s fancy Ghirardelli or Bellagio. I head straight to the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market to buy Filipino chocolate tablets or Guatemalan chocolate cubes.  Now one can always buy 100% chocolate by Baker’s or Toll House at your local supermarket but like most I’m lazy to figure out the right amount of sugar or cinnamon.

A Filipina-Aussie girl obsessed with Hispanic Filipino culture introduced me to Antonio Pueo chocolate tablets founded by a Spanish immigrant to the Philippines. I love buying the Antonio Pueo Excellent ready-made with only cacoa and sugar. The only chore is adding milk.  I never knew Atlanta would carry this product so it caught me by surprise when I found it at the Farmer’s Market. In retrospect, there is a sizeable local Filipino community so it’s not THAT surprising.

Since chocolate is originally from the Americas I explored the Farmer’s Market’s Mexican and Central American aisles. Lo and behold there were lots of chocolate cubes and tablets for sale including the Mexican brands, Mi Abuelita and Ibarra and the El Salvadorean brand Rio Grande but these contain lecithin or vegetable oils. Maybe they taste better than Antonio Pueo. I haven’t tried them but I want a product as pure as possible. Luckily I found Mi Guatemala brand from you guessed it! Guatemala. It’s states to be 100% natural made of only chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon.

I alternate between my two dependable standbys Antonio Pueo and Mi Guatemala because both taste distinctly different but each good in their own right. Aside from making delicious hot chocolate, I also prepare a cold version made the same way as my hot chocolate (add hot milk as explained on the package directions) but then placing it in the fridge or freezer for a cold chocolate milk. A low-fat alternative is to add water. I think that’s what the ancients did.