There's a moment in mid-June — when mornings finally drop below 15 degrees and you're standing in the kitchen in a jumper — where a hot drink stops being optional. It becomes the whole point of getting up.
Most of us reach for whatever's in the cupboard. A packet of Milo or a supermarket cocoa tin with a use-by date from two winters ago.
This is the year to do it properly.
What drinking chocolate actually is
Drinking chocolate is not the same as hot cocoa powder. Hot cocoa is made from heavily processed, dutched cocoa — the cacao has been stripped of most of its natural oils, treated with alkali to reduce bitterness, and blended with sugar and often milk powder. It dissolves easily, tastes consistent, and has almost nothing to do with real cacao.
Drinking chocolate — real drinking chocolate — is made from finely ground cacao that retains its natural cocoa butter. The texture is richer, thicker, and more complex. It behaves more like melted chocolate than reconstituted powder. When you make it properly, you're essentially drinking a very fine, very warm chocolate bar.
Fossa Chocolate's Drinking Chocolate takes this seriously. It's crafted from the same carefully fermented and dried single origin cacao that goes into their award-winning bars — processed to retain deep cocoa notes and what Fossa describes as a "hint of natural astringency." That slight edge is a sign of quality, not a flaw. It's what real cacao tastes like before it's been smoothed into bland commercial uniformity.
The two origins
Fossa's Drinking Chocolate comes in two single origin variants, and they taste genuinely different.
The Kokoa Kamili 72% is sourced from Tanzania's Kilombero Valley — the same cooperative that features in some of Fossa's most acclaimed bars. Expect a rounded, fruit-forward warmth with red berry undertones and a clean finish. It's the more approachable of the two, and the one to start with if you're new to origin drinking chocolate.
The Semuliki Forest 72% comes from a remote cooperative in western Uganda, operating in one of Africa's most biodiverse forest regions. It's more complex — earthier, with a deeper bitterness and a longer finish. If you take your coffee seriously and prefer it without sugar, this is your cup.
Both are 72% cacao. Both are vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and wheat-free — which matters if you're making drinks for a household with dietary requirements, or want to offer something genuinely inclusive at a winter gathering.
How to make it
Fossa recommends a ratio of 1 part drinking chocolate to 4.5 parts milk (or milk alternative). For a single serve, that works out to roughly 3 heaped teaspoons (about 20g) to 90ml of liquid.
A few tips for getting it right:
Don't rush the heat. Warm your milk slowly over medium heat rather than blasting it — rapid boiling kills the subtler flavour notes. You want steaming, not rolling.
Whisk continuously once you add the chocolate. The cocoa butter content means it won't dissolve the way a powder does — it needs movement to emulsify properly. A small milk frother works beautifully if you have one.
Try it with water first. It sounds counterintuitive, but a small cup made with hot water rather than milk lets you taste the cacao clearly, without the fat from the milk softening everything. It's the drinking chocolate equivalent of tasting wine before adding ice.
Add a pinch of salt. A very small pinch of flaky salt in the cup before you pour amplifies the chocolate flavour significantly. It's the same logic as salted caramel — salt doesn't make things taste salty, it makes everything else taste more like itself.
Beyond the basic cup
Once you have quality drinking chocolate in the house, a few other things become possible.
Use it as a hot chocolate base for a dessert drink — add a shot of espresso over the top for a mocha that puts any café version to shame. The Tanzania origin pairs particularly well here; the fruit notes in the cacao complement coffee's acidity rather than fighting it.
Spike it for an adults-only evening version. A small pour of dark rum, whisky, or Baileys into a Semuliki Forest cup is a genuinely excellent winter drink. The earthiness of the Uganda cacao handles alcohol better than any sweetened mix could.
Make it for guests. A cup of real drinking chocolate offered at the end of a winter dinner, instead of the third glass of wine nobody needed, is a gesture people remember. It's warm, it's unusual, it's thoughtful.
The upgrade is smaller than you think
A 250g bag of Fossa Drinking Chocolate makes approximately 12 full serves — that's a month of winter mornings, or a very impressive dinner party dessert, for around the price of a decent bottle of wine. Per cup, you're spending less than a café hot chocolate. The difference is that this one actually tastes like something.
Available now at snlimports.com in Kokoa Kamili 72% and Semuliki Forest 72%. Ships Australia-wide.
