After having hot cocoa at a top bakery or chocolate shop, it's nearly impossible to go back to those pouches of powder that are bought by the box.
But mastering the perfect cup of hot chocolate isn't easy —that is, unless you're City Bakery owner Maury Rubin. The top man at the New York City shop hasn't mastered one hot chocolate recipe but dozens, which he serves up during his annual Hot Chocolate Festival every February.
And while it's certainly worth a trip (or two, or four, or ten) to try out each of the City Bakery's amazing flavors — from caramel to cinnamon to banana peel — those who can't get to the Manhattan favorite can make use of Rubin's helpful tips at home.
Swoon! Maury Rubin of Manhattan's The City Bakery offers FEMAIL tips for making amazing hot chocolate at home
Where to start? The New York City spot has an annual Hot Chocolate Festival every February
1. Choose your liquid wisely
'The liquid is the majority of the drink,' Rubin explains to Daily Mail Online — so picking the right one for your taste preferences, whether it's water, milk, or cream, is key.
'Some people would say that water presents chocolate in its most complete flavor profile,' he says. 'To get everything that's in chocolate to come through in the final product, it's probably easier when you're using water. But it's a much less luxurious drink.'
There's also your favorite kind of milk — or, if you prefer the 'unabashedly dairy' take that City Bakery does, there's cream.
'For me the richness, the mouth-feel, is a gigantic part of the luxurious experience,' he says, adding that his secret recipe falls 'somewhere in the balance of milk and cream'.
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The perfect cup: Rubin says it's important to pick the right liquid as a base for the drink
2. Skip the bargain sweets and splurge on the good stuff
Step away from the powder! The most important part of a top hot chocolate experience is lots and lots of real, meltable chocolate. And not the cheap stuff, either.
'The range of chocolate available to make hot chocolate has never been more interesting,' says Rubin.
Unless you're really a fan of the bargain bin bars, treat the chocolate in your drink as a special purchase, picking something particularly tasty. If you want your drink to taste luxurious, the chocolate needs to actually be luxurious.
Marshmallow madness: Every day of February, The City Bakery spotlights a different specialty flavor (which can be ordered with or without a giant marshmallow)
2. Choose the right amount of cacao
Rubin recommends picking chocolate with a cacoa content in the mid-50s to high-60s, in terms of percentage. Anything lower may not be rich enough, and anything higher will be too bitter.
'The 65 per cent and over chocolate — those chocolates don't give you a lot of love in hot chocolate. The bitter ones,' he says.
All chocolate, all the time: Rubin says it's important to get quality chocolate and cram as much in as possible
4. Don't skimp on that chocolate, either
'What I think is so special about the City Bakery hot chocolate is that it's arrived at by two simple things. One is the balance of cream and dairy, and two is how much chocolate we put in it,' Rubin explains. 'The amount of chocolate is the single most determining factor.'
The key is to ask yourself, 'How much chocolate can you cram in, where it's still on the proper side of being a beverage?'
Keep adding more melted chocolate until your drink is thick, but stop before it turns into more of a pudding than something drinkable. If you have to eat it with a spoon, you've gone too far.
Careful! Mixing hot milk into the chocolate — instead of putting candy directly in the pan — will prevent it from burning
5. Don't burn it
'Chocolate burns very easily,' Rubin notes, adding that the candy should never be put directly into a pan and shouldn't come into contact with a heat source.
'If you put milk in a sauce pot and heat it up, don't add chocolate to that pot, because it will sink to the bottom and likely burn. And even if just a little bit of it burns, it changes the flavor,' he goes on.
First, heat the liquid you're using, whether it's water, milk, or cream. Put the chocolate in a bowl, then slowly add the hot liquid, mixing as you go — just as you might temper eggs in a recipe for custard.
Drool!Rubin's recipe mixes heavy cream and milk for a really luxurious drink (pictured: Caramel Hot Chocolate with a Pretzel Croissant)
Mix it up: Lots of new flavors like cinnamon and espresso can be mixed in (pictured: the S'morey — like Maury — Hot Chocolate)
6. Add some extra flavor
The City Bakery always has classic hot chocolate on hand, but they serve up plenty of other flavors too — one a day for the whole month of February, including espresso, chili pepper, dark chocolate, white chocolate, s'mores, and 'Love Potion'.
Rubin says there's no trick to figuring out what works best with chocolate, and even he has used a lot of trial and error to perfect the menu.
'Over the years I've tried a lot of unusual flavor combinations,' he said. 'The collective palette of hot chocolate lovers has moved so far that you can try anything.'
One trick if fruit is your add-in of choice: In addition to simply pureeing it before adding it in, trying try roasting or steaming it for a half hour first.
Have fun and experiment! The expert says finding the perfect flavor combo involves some trial and error
Boozy: Alcohol can be added too, and not just liquors — The City Bakery also does a hot chocolate with stout
7. Spike it — you know you want to
'I love beer and chocolate, specifically darker beers like stouts and porters,' says Rubin, who has a bourbon drink and a creamy stout mash-up on his menu.
To make sure it blends well with the drink, he says, 'I would pour the beer into a sauce ban and boil it first, for about 60 seconds, and it'll soften it a bit.'
Sweet liquors are also a favorite, and lately red wine hot chocolate has become trendy, too.
8. Add some air and serve ASAP
Finally, Rubin whips up his hot chocolate to be served immediately, and likes to aerate it — like one would with milk in a cappuccino — with a hand wand just before handing it over to customers.
Of course, not everyone has one of these at home. Simply shaking the drink up before tasting it can lighten it for the same effect.
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