[adulting] You know how there are some secrets of adulthood that most people figure out eventually but nobody tells you about?

I'm going to share one I discovered at age 38: Hot Cocoa.

for those of us who like lactose, hot cocoa is better with milk than water. You probably already knew that.

If you ever try a 1:1 mixture of milk & cream though, it's even better. If that's too rich, try 1:2.

the real secret though is that most cocoa containers say to use 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa mix.

I always assumed that, if I used much more than that, the texture would get gritty, that 1-2 tablespoons per cup is all the suspension could dissolve.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

it IS hard to mix much more than that in with a spoon.

So these days, while the milk/cream mixture is heating, I use a wire whisk, & beat in about 6 Tablespoons per cup. You CAN go even higher than 6, but 6 seemed to me to be the point of diminishing returns.

Up until 6, every tablespoon makes the resulting cocoa SO MUCH MORE DELICIOUS.

Anyway, maybe everyone already knew this, but I did not. So I share ot with you in the hopes that it improves your life this winter.

To improve mixing: a little coconut oil. Didn't find this out until my late 20s.

ooh

Though, there might be enough fat in cream that it isn't needed? :?

Oh yeah we figured out the cream thing at blood donor clinics lol, even with water based cocoa putting in a couple creamers makes it way better

Tim Hortons trick, order a white hot chocolate and ask them to put a chai tea bag in it. tastes great.

I've also found that the spoon amount depends on the mix, some kinds mix great even in cold milk, some need hot milk, some dissolve like crap no matter what the temperature

Some dissolve better concentrated, and milk gradually added. Learned this trick from instructions for Ovaltine and Milo.

i prefer to just put the packet of hot cocoa into coffee

N̢̺̝o̫̟͖L̼͍̞。 : I do that in the mornings when my coffee's been in the pot too long. I am in fact doing that now!