Oaxacan Chocolate de Agua with a Scratch Cacao-Almond Tablet

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

In Oaxaca, hot chocolate is built on hand-ground tablets of cacao, almonds, sugar and canela, dissolved in hot water — not milk — and whipped with a molinillo until a thick cap of foam rises. This version has you grind your own tablets in a food processor (30 minutes of work, and they keep for two months), then froth the drink into that signature cocoa-brown foam with nothing fancier than an immersion blender. It tastes rustic and faintly gritty in the best way: bitter cacao, toasted almond, warm cinnamon, and far more chocolate flavor than any cocoa powder can manage.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raw skin-on almonds
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp ground canela (Mexican cinnamon)
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 6 oz unsweetened 100% cacao chocolate, chopped
• 3 tbsp cacao nibs (optional, for texture)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 6 cups water
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk (optional, for a softer cup)
• extra ground canela, for dusting
• pan dulce or bolillo, for dunking (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Spread the almonds on a small sheet pan and toast 9 to 11 minutes, until they smell nutty and the skins darken slightly. Cool completely — 15 minutes — or the residual heat will seize the chocolate later.
2. Put the sugar, ground canela and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor and run 45 seconds, until the sugar is powdery. Add the cooled almonds and process in 10-second pulses for 2 to 3 minutes total, scraping down twice, until the almonds break down into a damp, sandy meal that clumps when pressed. Stop before it turns into loose almond butter.
3. Melt the chopped unsweetened chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over an inch of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth and no hotter than about 115°F. Wipe the bottom of the bowl dry.
4. Pour the melted chocolate and the vanilla into the food processor with the almond-sugar mixture and run 60 to 90 seconds, until it comes together as a thick, glossy, slightly grainy paste that pulls away from the blade. Pulse in the cacao nibs, if using, just 3 or 4 times so they stay coarse.
5. Scrape the paste onto parchment and divide it into 6 equal mounds (about 2 ounces each). Press each into a disc roughly 2 1/2 inches across and 1/3 inch thick, using a ring mold or just your palms with a sheet of parchment on top. Let the tablets firm up at cool room temperature for 2 hours, or 30 minutes in the refrigerator, until they snap cleanly.
6. To brew: chop 1 tablet per serving into rough pieces (a firm tablet crumbles easily under a knife). Bring the water and a pinch of salt to a bare simmer in a saucepan over medium heat — small bubbles at the edge, 200°F, not a rolling boil.
7. Add the chopped tablets, lower the heat, and whisk steadily for 3 to 4 minutes until fully dissolved and no flecks of sugar remain on the bottom of the pan. Stir in the milk now if you want a softer, rounder cup, and heat 1 minute more without boiling.
8. Take the pan off the heat and froth: hold an immersion blender just below the surface and pulse in 10-second bursts for about 45 seconds, tilting the pan so it pulls in air, until a 1-inch head of pale-brown foam builds. With a molinillo, roll the handle briskly between your palms for 1 to 2 minutes instead. No blender? Pour the chocolate back and forth between the pan and a tall pitcher from 12 inches up, 10 times.
9. Pour immediately into warmed mugs, spooning the foam over the top so each cup gets a cap. Dust with canela and serve with pan dulce for dunking. The drink separates as it sits — re-froth for 15 seconds before pouring seconds.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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