Don’t Judge Me Mondays: Mezcal Cocoa

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Today is a very special Don’t Judge Me Monday because it is the first day of #Choctoberfest 2016!  This week I’ll be sharing various recipes (including a great savory option!) centering around chocolate of some sort.

#Choctoberfest is a virtual event put together by The PinterTest Kitchen. Bloggers from around the world will be posting their favorite chocolate recipes, and you’ll get a chance to win some awesome prizes. What’s not to love?

Thank you to the sponsors who make #Choctoberfest possible! This year, Imperial Sugar is back as our Gold Sponsor. They have been a trusted name in kitchens since 1843, and their website is home to thousands of sweet recipes tested in the Imperial Sugar Kitchen. You can find Imperial Sugar on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, or join their Sweet Community so you can share your own recipes, save recipes to a virtual inbox, print Imperial Sugar coupons, and connect with other sugar lovers.

Imperial Sugar and our silver sponsors have banded together to offer a huge #Choctoberfest prize pack, which you can enter to win below! One lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive the following:

• From our Gold Sponsor Imperial Sugar: 1 case of granulated sugar (40 pounds), 1 case of brown sugar (24 pounds), 1 case of dark brown sugar (24 pounds), 1 case of powdered sugar (24 pounds bags), and an Imperial Sugar red ruffle apron
• From our Silver Sponsor Nature Nate’s: 32 oz. Raw & Unfiltered Honey bottle, Honey Syrup, Honey Packets, a Nature Nate’s T-shirt, various kitchen supplies, and $50 Amazon gift card
• From our Silver Sponsor Barlean’s:16 oz Barlean’s Butter-Flavored Coconut Oil, 9.52 oz canister of Chocolate Silk Greens, and 8oz bottle of Essential Women Omega-Swirl Chocolate Mint
• From our Silver Sponsor Caveman Coffee: 1 Bag of Coffee (you choice of blacklisted or sabertooth), 1 coconut MCT oil, and 1 Cacao Butter
• From #Choctoberfest blog hosts The PinterTest Kitchen: 1 specialty chocolate gift pack (your choice of dark or milk chocolate), 1 tin (14 ounces) drinking chocolate, and Divine’s Fair Trade Gift Set

Enter now to win our #Choctoberfest 2016 prize pack! We’ll be picking a winner at random winner on Saturday, Oct. 22, so enter by next Friday to make sure your name is in the drawing:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will be sharing a boozy hot cocoa recipe with you in honor of Choctoberfest.  It’s got something extra, with the addition of chili powder.  This cocoa is smoky, boozy, slightly spicy and totally chocolately!

The booze in this special hot cocoa is mezcal. It is Tequila’s smokier cousin, is not necessarily produced in the region of Tequila, and is delicious!  You should be able to find it in most stores where you would purchase tequila and other spirits.

Let’s get to the cocoa!

Start by heating the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat (we don’t want to boil the milk, we’re just heating it) and whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar, chili powder, and instant espresso.  The espresso powder is added just to enhance the flavor of the chocolate, the hot cocoa won’t end up tasting like coffee.

For the chili powder, I used powdered New Mexico chilies.  Originally I tried chipotle and that was just too spicy for me!  Feel free to add more chili if you like it extra spicy or go ahead and use chipotle.

Once everything is mixed in without any clumps cook for about 5minutes until a few small bubbles form on the surface of the cocoa and it’s hot.  Now take the pan off the heat and mix in the mezcal.

You can serve it as is, or go the extra mile and top it with some cinnamon whipped cream.  You can check out this post for step by step instructions on making whipped cream.  Just replace the cocoa with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

This recipe makes 2 large mugs of cocoa.

Enjoy!

 

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Here’s a list of all of the bloggers participating in #Choctoberfest 2016. Visit any of their blogs to get delicious chocolate recipes throughout the week:

The PinterTest Kitchen • 2 Cookin’ Mamas • A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures • addicted 2 recipes • Amy’s Cooking Adventures • An Affair From The Heart • Balancing Motherhood • Body Rebooted • Bottom Left of the Mitten • By the Pounds • Canning and Cooking at Home • Coconut & Lime • Cook with 5 Kids • Cook’s Hideout • Cookaholic Wife • Cooking with Carlee • CopyKat Recipes • Cricket’s Confections • Crumbs in my Mustachio • Elisabeth Jean • Fairyburger • Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice • Family Around the Table • Fantastical Sharing of Recipes • Feed Your Soul Too • Feeding Big • Frankly Entertaining • Full Belly Sisters • Get the Good Stuff • Grumpy’s Honeybunch • Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks • Hostess At Heart • Ink and Sugar • Jane’s Adventures in Dinner • Join Us, Pull Up a Chair • Karen’s Kitchen Adventures • Kate’s Recipe Box • Kudos Kitchen by Renee • Kylee Cooks • Letz Eat • Life Currents • Life on Food • Making Miracles • Monica’s Table • Moore or Less Cooking Food Blog • My Catholic Kitchen • My Gluten Free Miami • Our Good Life • Palatable Pastime • Restless Chipotle • Seduction in The Kitchen • Sew You Think You Can Cook • Simple Food 365 • Southern With A Twist • Sumptuous Spoonfuls • Take Two Tapas • Tampa Cake Girl • Teaspoon of Goodness • That Recipe • The Crumby Cupcake • The Flavourista • The Food Hunter’s Guide To Cuisine • The Freshman Cook • The Pajama Chef • The Redhead Baker • The Spiffy Cookie • Tramplingrose • Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen • Zesty South Indian Kitchen

I’m looking forward to seeing all of the yummy recipes posted on these blogs. Check them out throughout the week and don’t forget to follow our sponsors and bloggers using the Rafflecopter giveaway widget above for your chance to win our sweet prize pack.

Are you a fellow food blogger who wants to get involved with events like #Choctoberfest? Sign up here to get notifications when they happen from The PinterTest Kitchen.