Fixing a hot chocolate that is not right

Four families, and putting a complaint in the right one is most of the work.

BALANCE — too sweet, too bitter, too rich, flat. Nothing is physically wrong with the drink; the proportions are off.

STRENGTH — too weak, too strong, tastes more of milk than of chocolate. The dose or the liquid is wrong.

TEXTURE — thin, watery, gritty, lumpy, oily, split. Something has gone wrong mechanically and more ingredients will not fix it.

HEAT DAMAGE — scorched, cooked-milk flavour, skin. Irreversible, and entirely preventable next time.

The commonest mistake is treating a strength problem as a balance problem or vice versa. A drink that tastes of hot milk is not under-sweetened, and adding sugar makes it worse.

TOO SWEET. Almost always the chocolate rather than added sugar — a 45 or 50% bar is more than half sugar, and at a rich dose that is a lot of it. Move up the percentage rather than reducing the dose, or use unsweetened cocoa for part of the chocolate. A pinch of salt will not reduce sweetness but it makes the drink taste less one-dimensional, and a few drops of a bitter element — a spoonful of strong coffee, a scrape of unsweetened cocoa — genuinely will.

TOO BITTER. High-percentage chocolate, or too much cocoa powder, or a natural rather than Dutch-process cocoa showing its acidity. Sugar first, then salt — salt suppresses bitterness perception directly and does it at quantities you cannot taste. A splash of cream also works, because fat blunts bitterness. If it is sharp rather than merely bitter, the cause is acidity and a Dutch-process cocoa will fix it permanently.

TOO RICH, CLOYING, HARD TO FINISH. Too much cocoa butter for the volume. This is the drink telling you it wants to be served in a smaller cup — the European traditions serve rich chocolate in a demitasse for exactly this reason. If you want a mugful, reduce the dose or move some of it from chocolate to cocoa powder, which brings flavour without fat.

FLAT — nothing wrong, nothing right. Salt, and let it stand for a minute. A drink served too hot tastes of very little because aroma perception is poor above about 70°C, and this is the single most common cause of a hot chocolate that seems boring.

TOO WEAK. The genuine case for more chocolate. Work in grams per 100ml: below about 15g per 100ml of chopped chocolate, or 5g per 100ml of cocoa, a drink is going to be light whatever else you do.

NOT CHOCOLATEY ENOUGH, THOUGH THE DOSE IS HIGH. A different problem with a different set of fixes, and adding cocoa usually makes it worse rather than better because you hit the dusty ceiling. The real causes are: no salt; skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, so there is not enough fat to carry the aroma; the drink being too hot to smell; or a low-percentage chocolate whose sugar is drowning it. Try salt, whole milk and a minute's standing before anything else.

TASTES OF MILK RATHER THAN CHOCOLATE. Milk proteins bind some of cocoa's polyphenols and genuinely mute its aroma. The dramatic fix is to make the drink with water instead — which is what much of the traditional drinking-chocolate world does, and which tastes startlingly more of chocolate. A halfway version, half water and half milk, keeps some body and recovers most of the clarity.

TOO STRONG, ALMOST MEDICINAL. Usually a very high-percentage chocolate at a rich dose. Sugar, cream, or dilution with more milk — and if a drink is both too strong and too bitter, fix the sweetness first, because a lot of what reads as strength is unbuffered bitterness.

LUMPS OF UNDISSOLVED POWDER. Cocoa was added to liquid that was already hot and already at full volume. Each clump wetted on the outside and stayed dry inside. A stick blender rescues it; a whisk mostly does not. Next time, paste first, with the sugar mixed in dry.

GRITTY OR SANDY, WITHOUT VISIBLE LUMPS. Four possible causes and they need telling apart. Undispersed fine cocoa is the commonest. Undissolved sugar happens when a lot of sugar is added to a drink that is never brought hot enough. Chocolate that was added to liquid too cool to melt it leaves fine solids. And chocolate chips, which are formulated not to melt, leave grit however hot the drink is.

THIN AND WATERY. Not enough chocolate, or a low-fat liquid, or a cocoa-powder drink being judged by a chocolate drink's standard. Cocoa cannot produce a rich texture at any dose; the fat that does it has been pressed out.

TOO THICK, GLUEY. Too much cornflour, or cornflour cooked too long. Thin it with hot milk — not water, which dilutes the flavour along with the texture.

OILY FILM ON TOP, OR VISIBLY SPLIT. The emulsion has broken and the cocoa butter has separated. Almost always overheating, occasionally adding cold liquid to a hot chocolate base. Whisk hard off the heat; a stick blender will bring back nearly anything. Prevention is keeping it below 75°C.

SEPARATES ON STANDING. Normal for a drink with no stabiliser in it, and not a fault. Stir it. If you want it to hold, more chocolate — the cocoa butter and the solids together give it enough body to stay put for longer.

SCORCHED, WITH A BURNT NOTE. The milk caught on the bottom of the pan. Nothing rescues this; the compounds responsible are extremely low-threshold and they are through the whole drink. Start again, over lower heat, stirring, and preferably in a heavy pan.

COOKED-MILK FLAVOUR. A distinct sweet, slightly sulphurous, evaporated-milk note that appears when milk is taken much above 80°C. It is not burning and it is not a fault of the chocolate. It dominates because it is exactly the kind of aroma the nose is good at. Heat to steaming and stop.

SKIN ON THE SURFACE. Denatured protein and fat, formed at the air interface when milk is held hot. Harmless. Whisking disperses it, a lid prevents it, and not boiling prevents it better.

A MICROWAVE IS THE COMMONEST CAUSE OF ALL THREE. It heats unevenly and overshoots easily, so a drink can be scorched at the edges while lukewarm in the middle. Short bursts with a stir between them, and stop before it looks ready.