Homemade Hot Chocolate

I touched on this briefly in my earlier post, but thought I'd elaborate with a little more back story.

While we were in Costa Rica on our honeymoon, Ryan and I took a day trip to "The Villa Vanilla". I personally was super excited about this place! Ryan on the other hand was only going because he knew I wanted to go. I vaguely remember it being a new attraction that the hotel was offering (all of our excursions were through the hotel) and almost not going because it became a hassle.

Well, it all got worked out and we took the long drive to this farm in the middle of no where. I didn't totally know what to expect, but knew it would be something I'd enjoy. We get there and everything is semi-shady. There are Costa Ricans sitting on logs craving some sort of wood, small little farm style houses and not much else. Eventually a hiker-looking gentleman come out - the first person who seemed to speak any considerable English. He happened to be an American who had moved to Costa Rica a few years earlier, bought this massive piece of property and grew out of it, the Villa Vanilla. Ryan and I mentioned more than once while we were there that this guy was a genius. What money he didn't make off of selling his produce, he made off of tours and stupid tourists like us.

First we did a tour of his barn-type area, where he had samples of his different products. We played a little game where he would let us smell, touch or taste certain things and we had to guess what it was. I was the only person interested in cooking/baking on the tour and had to stop myself at one point from being the only person making guesses :(

Afterwards, we did a tour of his organic 'farm'. It was the most interesting farm/garden. It was all settled in around trees. Vines of different things were growing up the trees, I learned sooo much! For example the cinnamon we eat is tree trunks. They literally would cut limbs off of their cinnamon trees, carve off slivers of the bark (so THAT's what those costa rican's were doing) and grind up the sheets of wood into powder for us to eat (and also that his cinnamon was the 'good' cinnamon)!

We learned about the different stages of the vanilla bean, he showed up different species of pepper and so much more.

Afterwards we took a short hike to my absolute favorite part of the whole experience. He had a little 3-wall 'house' type thing that stood at the top of a mountain/cliff and over looked his property. It was TO DIE FOR! He had the most beautiful, unobstructed view of the rain forest! While we were there he let us sample different drinks and stuff that he had made with his products while we just enjoyed the view. Perhaps even cooler than the view was that while we were standing there, WE SAW A TREE FALL IN THE RAIN FOREST! Maybe it doesn't sound that cool, but it was freakin' awesome! All of the sudden the peaceful silence was obstructed with a load cracking and BAM there was this void in the middle of all the trees were a tree had just fallen. We both assumed it fell naturally... (did I mention I forgot my camera that day??? of all days!!!)

After the tasting we were lead back to a little gift shop where we could purchase some products. I had warned Ryan that I would probably be spending a good bit of money - and I did.

I bought vanilla extract, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, cocoa beans, ground cocoa, oregano, pepper, and more. (SHHH - don't tell Obama - I brought it home)

Most of this stuff I've used over the course of the last year and a half, but I still had some in the cabinet. In particular I had the ground cocoa. Half the reason I still had it was because I forgot it was there. The other half of the reason was because I just couldn't remember how the guy told us to make hot chocolate out of it (ah - yes, I'm getting to the point now...). Yesterday with the snow and the family time, I decided to just go for it. It would either go to waste and not be used or go to waste because it tasted terrible.

I assumed it wasn't sweetened, but wasn't sure. I boiled some milk and added the cocoa and sampled. Sure enough it was still bitter chocolate. Hmm...

Next step we added some brown sugar. I considered adding plain white sugar, but thought brown sugar would be a little more rich. It was well on it's way... but it was still missing something... VANILLA! I added a dash of vanilla and tried it again... PERFECT! I let Ryan taste it (the true test) and he LOVED it! So much so, that when he was outside today he requested I mix up some more. Sadly though, we only have enough left for about 1 more cup...

I could alway buy more here, but would much rather go back and get it myself...

because I love our honeymoon soooo much....

Question: I love going to new places and while I typically enjoy them all, usually end up saying I loved it, but don't plan to go back. Mostly my reason is because there's somewhere else new I'd rather go. I loved Spain and would love to take Ryan, but I'm sure we'd hit a number of other places before considering it. I loved Paris, but would never plan a trip specifically to Paris (maybe a day trip or a couple of days if we ever went to London...to see the stuff we missed)... but I would with out a doubt go back to Costa Rica. What's you're favorite place you've been? The one place you can't get enough of?