Hot Orange Chocolate and Eggnog for winter days
There is no doubt that the winter in northern Vietnam is the most unusual season of all year. One day it's sunny and warm, the next it's cold and raining. It's hard enough to figure out how to dress for this weather, not to mention trying to come up with a new and trendy drink.
When the weather gets cold, people love to eat hot and healthy dishes. It’s the same for beverages, an outstanding drink for winter must be simple, delicious and good for health. So how can we make a drink that is not only simple and economical but also trendy? This question has been solved by technical sales representative Dao Thien Nam in Rich's foodservice classes in Hanoi on Dec. 14 and 15.
According to Nam, there are several ingredients that go well with cold weather like ginger, cinnamon, chocolate and whisked egg: “Since the old days, Vietnamese people have had the habit of drinking crushed ginger with sugar to treat flus and warm up the body. Cinnamon is also a spice with a good odor that helps you relax and raise your body temperature. Meanwhile, chocolate and whisked egg yolks are great sources of high-quality protein and nutrition, which quickly provide you with energy during cold days.”
By using these ingredients to make two new drinks – Hot orange chocolate and Eggnog, Nam surprised the audience.
Hot chocolate is a familiar drink in Vietnam. Each coffee shop or restaurant has its own recipes. For this drink, Nam used Rich’s Chocolate Compound because of its sweet smell and fine texture, which makes it very easy to handle even for home bakers. After melting chocolate in a pot of Rich’s Versatié, he slowly poured fresh milk in the mixture and stirred gently. At this moment, the smell of chocolate and fresh cream filled the room, brining people closer together.
It seemed like everyone had a satisfied smile on their face when Nam poured hot chocolate in a glass, showing its perfect smoothness and mesmerizing fragrance. However, the secret to this drink lies in its very name: Hot orange chocolate. Once the temperature was decreasing, Nam added a little Rich’s orange fruit filling to his hot chocolate and started to decorate the glass. The rich taste of chocolate combined with gently sour taste of orange fruit filling is the unique selling point of this drink compared to the regular hot chocolate. Made with fresh oranges, Rich’s orange fruit filling has a great taste, gentle sourness and sweet fragrance.
With Nam’s performance of the second drink – Eggnog, the audience was once again stunned by his artistic decoration style. After heating Rich’s Versatié and fresh milk, he whisked the egg yolk with a pinch of sugar.
Nam said that there is a very common mistake that baristas make. They usually overheat the milk before adding the whisked egg to make sure the egg will be fully cooked. However, we only need to heat milk to 80 °C, that’s enough to cook the whisked egg yolk. Besides, overheating will destroy valuable nutrients in the milk; it will also affect the milk’s flavor.
“Each season, each weather has its own character,” Nam said. “To be able to make drinks that match with today’s trend, the first thing a barista has to do is to always put himself in the customer’s shoes to try to understand their needs.”
After Rich’s classes, lots of participants said that they will add these two drinks to their menus, to bring a fresh style to their restaurants. Nam said he also hopes that Rich’s classes will always be a great source of useful information that could help the company’s partners improve their businesses!
