Chocolate a la taza

The story

Spanish hot chocolate is made to be dipped into as much as drunk: dark, barely sweet, and thick enough to coat a spoon, thanks to a little starch cooked into the milk along with the chocolate. Spain was the first country in Europe to take up chocolate, brought from Mexico in the sixteenth century, and for a long time it was drunk hot and thick like this rather than eaten as a bar. At the holidays it marks two mornings. In the early hours of New Year's Day, after the twelve grapes at midnight and a long night out, people stop for churros con chocolate before going home to bed. And on January 6, Día de Reyes, when Spanish children open the presents left by the Three Kings, breakfast is a slice of roscón de Reyes dunked into a cup of this chocolate. For Spanish families in America, a pot of chocolate a la taza beside the Three Kings ring cake in this collection is the simplest way to bring that morning to the table.