All Mochas Are Not Created Equal

Chocolate and coffee are inextricably linked in today’s coffee culture, as epitomized by one of the most popular drinks sold in cafés, the Café Mocha. The mocha is a combination of espresso, steamed and foamed milk, and chocolate.

Most café owners don’t pay much attention to their mochas, and many of them add a cheap, grocery store chocolate syrup to the beverages they serve. The irony is that café owners spend an inordinate amount of time and money tasting, testing and monitoring their coffee. Why not do the same with their flavored drinks? Like coffee, chocolate has many different flavors and aromas, as well as varying degrees of sweetness and mouthfeel. (Mouthfeel refers to how something feels when you taste it. Is it heavy, like cream, or light, like gelatin? Thick like a hollandaise sauce or thin like water?)

Offering a distinctive and rewarding mocha requires pairing the type of espresso used in the drink with a chocolate that will complement, and not overwhelm, the flavor of the coffee.

Some key questions that can be asked about the espresso are whether it is a dark roast or light roast. If it is a darker roast, then a less sweet chocolate offers a more intense flavor throughout the drink. A sweeter chocolate lightens the overall tone of a beverage.

Try this as an experiment:
Make two identical mochas, but in one add an inexpensive chocolate syrup from the grocery store. In the second, add a premium chocolate that contains more chocolate and cocoa flavor. Taste and compare the results for yourself. Let me know how your tastings go; I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the difference a quality chocolate can make.