How To Order A Mexican Hot Chocolate-Inspired Drink From Starbucks

Hot chocolate ranks high on our list of warm, comforting, and totally satisfying beverages, particularly when you mix in condensed milk. Perfect for chilly days and holiday nights, the combination of creamy milk and rich chocolate tends to warm up cold bodies and souls with equal intensity. While you may think of it as a modern beverage, the origin of drinking chocolate actually dates back to the Mayan civilization in Mexico and Central America. And while you may love your hot chocolate as is, you may enjoy Mexican hot chocolate even more.

The nuanced flavors of this sweet treat have become so popular that you can even order a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired beverage from coffee magnate Starbucks. For a medium size, ask for a grande hot chocolate made with soy milk and no water, one and a half pumps of mocha syrup, one and a half pumps of white mocha syrup, and three pumps of cinnamon dolce syrup. Request your barista to add cinnamon powder to the soy milk while it's being steamed. For comparison's sake, Starbucks' regular hot chocolate contains 2% milk and four pumps of mocha sauce, served with or without whipped cream.

The resulting beverage should taste sweet and chocolatey with a noticeable kick of cinnamon. Of course, if it's authenticity you want, you'll have to look outside the coffee house's doors.

The earliest version of drinking chocolate that came from modern-day Mexico would have been made of ground cacao beans, water, and corn (although, sometimes the corn was omitted). Later, the drink would come to be made with milk, cacao, sugar, and cinnamon. This heated version would have been developed in the late 16th century, when Spanish explorers brought ingredients into Mexico that weren't otherwise there, like milk and sugar, and combined them with native ingredients.

Today, Mexican hot chocolate is often flavored with additional elements like vanilla, nuts, various spices like nutmeg or even chili pepper for a spicy kick, which is actually delicious when combined with chocolate. Several brands, like Ibarra, make pre-mixed and molded Mexican hot chocolate tablets that are made with cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, and soy lecithin that you just need to simmer in milk. Or you can use Nestle's version, Abuelita Mexican Hot Chocolate Tablets, to make a boozy Abuelita Surprise.

While these large discs look like solid chunks of chocolate that are good enough to eat, don't. You'll be met with a rather unpleasant, gritty texture due to the undissolved sugar and absence of cocoa butter. Instead, wait to try until you've whisked one into milk to form a cohesive, and delicious, drinking chocolate. It's a unique treat worth trying for anyone who enjoys hot chocolate and wants to try something new.