In a gelato parlour, make sure to have an imaginative and varied menu, so that the gelato craftsman can satisfy the diverse needs of consumers, whatever the occasion. Among the various items on the menu, including hand-made gelato, smoothies, lollies, granitas and sorbets, a gelato parlour can also offer hot café drinks
.Hot chocolate is a must-have for the winter season, an inviting and delicious idea, which is easy to make and can be served up in your gelato parlour to fulfil the desires of customers who refuse to give up the sin of gluttony even at the coldest time of the year.
The Aztecs were among the first people to make cocoa into a drink: they first roasted the cocoa beans, then ground them up and mixed them with water, spicing them up with pepper or chili to make Xocoatl, the ancestor of modern drinking chocolate. With its bitter and particularly unpleasant taste, according to the stories of the conquistadors, Xocoatl was used to relieve pain and boost energy. Cocoa arrived in Europe thanks to the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés who, on being recognised by the Aztec emperor Montezuma as the reincarnation of the god Quetzalcoatl was presented with a whole cacao plantation as a gift. Hot chocolate was an invention of the Europeans, who replaced the pepper and chilli with sugar and vanilla to make it sweeter to drink.
Today, the most popular version of hot chocolate is without doubt the classic chocolate milk with whipped cream, but there are many other ingredients used to spice it up, including coffee, caramel, coconut, hazelnut, white chocolate to name just a few examples of variations to the classic hot chocolate drink.
A classic and tasty idea to offer inside the gelato parlour, hot chocolate is a speciality that is attractive both to adults and children and is a perfect alternative product for warming up winter days.