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Recently, more friends have been visiting the Front Street store to ask about mocha coffee. Unfortunately, mocha coffee has already been removed from Front Street's menu, so friends kept hitting a wall one after another. "Since we can't buy it outside, let's do it ourselves and have plenty to eat." Most friends, holding to this idea, went home and started making mocha coffee.
Unexpectedly, the mocha coffee they made did not quite match their ideal: either the chocolate flavor was not strong enough, or it had flavor but was too cloyingly sweet. So they contacted Front Street through the backend, wanting a secret recipe for making mocha coffee.Today's mocha coffee refers to an Italian-style milk coffee with chocolate added, using the addition of chocolate to imitate the mocha coffee that originates from Yemen and has a rich chocolate flavor (for details, please refer to this article: "What Is Mocha Coffee?"). The vast majority of mocha coffees use chocolate sauce for production, because chocolate sauce is convenient and quick and can be used directly without waiting for the chocolate to melt! And it should be known that although chocolate sauce is very convenient, the key reason most friends cannot make mocha coffee well comes from it.
Because chocolate itself has a very intense bitterness, the more popular chocolate sauce products on the market all add a large amount of sugar during production, so as to neutralize the bitterness and make it more acceptable. But since the sugar and chocolate have already merged into one, we cannot separate them or adjust the ratio on their own. This also means that when the chocolate flavor is not strong enough, if you choose to keep adding chocolate sauce, although the chocolate flavor will be increased, the sweetness will also surge at the same time.So most shops do not use only chocolate sauce to make a mocha; they also add other "seasonings" so that the mocha coffee keeps its essence (chocolate flavor) while also going down easily (not bitter). Many friends, because it is their first encounter, do not recognize the drawbacks of chocolate sauce, so when making mocha coffee they use only chocolate sauce! No problem. Next, let Qianjie share how to make a delicious cup of mocha coffee!
How should a delicious mocha coffee be made?As mentioned earlier, mocha coffee is simply a chocolate-flavored espresso milk coffee. So what we need to do is very simple: give a cup of milk coffee enough chocolate intensity (flavor), while keeping the proportion of sugar from being too high, just enough to neutralize the bitterness!Likewise, we will still use chocolate sauce to make the mocha coffee, because its sweetness and chocolate blend more naturally, and it does not taste too jarring when you drink it. But besides chocolate sauce, Qianjie will also use another ingredient to increase the chocolate intensity, namely: unsweetened cocoa powder.
Unsweetened cocoa powder not only brings a richer flavor to coffee, but also greatly enhances the body, and because it contains no sugar, it does not add sweetness. Therefore, it is the perfect choice for boosting chocolate intensity (melted dark chocolate works too, of course, but it takes more steps and more time). All right, without further ado, let's start making a delicious mocha!How do you make a hot mocha?Since hot mocha and iced mocha differ slightly in how they are made, Qianjie will introduce them separately! The items and ingredients needed to make a hot mocha are: 1 coffee cup, 1 mixing cup/bowl (optional), 1 strainer (optional), 1 serving of milk, 1 serving of espresso, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder.To make mocha coffee, we recommend using Qianjie Classic Espresso Blend, a recipe combining three origins: Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam, roasted dark to highlight the coffee's aromatic character as much as possible. It lets you easily extract a rich, dense crema that pairs beautifully with the chocolate aroma. You can place an order at the Qianjie Taobao store or the Qianjie Tmall flagship store.
Step 1: Make the chocolate espresso baseFirst, let's make the chocolate espresso base! Add 15ml of chocolate sauce (DaVinci brand) and 5g of unsweetened cocoa powder (Valrhona brand) to the mixing cup. After many tests at Qianjie, the chocolate paste made with this ratio has just the right sweetness and an extremely intense chocolate flavor! Of course, those who like it sweeter can slightly increase the chocolate sauce to 20ml.
Next, we extract a shot of espresso into the mixing cup, using the heat of the espresso along with stirring to melt and blend the chocolate sauce and cocoa powder. (Today's extraction parameters used by Qianjie are 19.8g of coffee grounds, extracted over 28 seconds to yield 38ml of liquid!)
Step 2: Filter out the unmelted cocoa powderOnce stirring is complete, we can pour it into the latte cup! When pouring, it is best to use a strainer to filter out the chocolate powder that has not fully melted, because it will clump together into larger pieces; after filtering, the drink will feel smoother! (This is also why you need to prepare two cups; if you do not plan to filter, you can simply make it directly in the latte cup.)(all-purpose powder bowl)
Step 3: Dust the surface with a small amount of cocoa powderIf you have a sieve, you can use it to dust a little cocoa powder over the surface of this chocolate espresso base, which will give the finished mocha a more enticing chocolate aroma. (You can also skip this step.)Just as when making a hot latte, the milk for a hot mocha also needs to be steamed to a high temperature of 65°C to activate the sweetness of the lactose, and at the same time, the presence of milk foam makes the texture even more velvety. So when it comes to steaming the milk, the steps are exactly the same as for a latte! Steam to 60~68°C, with a thin layer of milk foam.
The ratio of milk to coffee is 1:4, meaning 50ml of base should be paired with 200ml of milk.Once the milk is steamed, we can begin the integration! If you want to pour latte art, note that because this base is too thick, its initial flow is not high, so we need to use more milk to integrate and improve the flow of the surface, which is the only way to create better-looking latte art. (It is worth mentioning that mocha is actually easier to pour art with than latte.)
At this point, a delicious mocha is complete! Not only does it offer a great visual experience, but it also tastes wonderfully pleasant. Rich, sweet chocolate paired with the whiskey aroma, butter cookie notes brought by the Warm Sun blend, the whole thing tastes like a whiskey-filled chocolate, and thanks to the Red Cherry there is a slight berry aroma, with a very rich layering of flavor!!!
How Do You Make an Iced Mocha?Since we need to use ice cubes to cool down an iced mocha, we sacrifice part of the milk to make room for them. And when the ice cubes melt, they dilute the overall strength, making the drink taste rather thin, so we need to boost the ingredients in the chocolate base: raise the chocolate sauce from the original 15ml to 20ml, and the unsweetened cocoa powder from the original 5g to 8g. By increasing the chocolate's strength, we can correct the mouthfeel!The process for making the chocolate coffee base is the same as for a hot mocha; all that's left is to combine the ingredients together! Into a prepared glass, add ice cubes (90g) and milk (160ml) in order, then finally pour over the chocolate coffee base, and you're done!(You can also first coat the inside of the glass with chocolate sauce; with a glass cup, this makes it look even nicer)
Remember to give it a stir before drinking, so the milk and chocolate coffee blend together better! If you have the means, you can also add cream, milk foam and other ingredients on top to give the iced mocha more layers and double the deliciousness!
Best value everyday pour-over coffee beans: Qianjie Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gutingting, Qianjie Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha coffee beans
Espresso coffee beans recommendation: Qianjie Classic Blend, Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend
The above coffee beans are now available for purchase at the Tmall "Qianjie Flagship Store", where you can also find 60 kinds of single-origin pour-over coffee beans and espresso coffee beans from around the world. Qianjie coffee beans are freshly roasted and shipped within 24 hours.
Tmall Qianjie Flagship Store link: https://qianjieshipin.tmall.com
Or you can search "Qianjie Flagship Store" directly on Taobao
Qianjie Coffee store address: No. 315 Donghuadong Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
