Next to water, coffee is the second favorite drink in my diet. And of course, that’s also the reason on why I decided to start blogging about it.
I have many reasons on why I enjoy drinking coffee, such as what it does for me mentally, staying focused, boosting my energy, and many others which I talk about here.
I usually drink coffee by itself, or as part of my breakfast. But once in a while, the one side treat that I find myself enjoying most with my cup of coffee is a small amount of chocolate. It just seems to go naturally with my coffee – like the two were meant for each other.
And naturally – since this site is about my experience with coffee, I decided to take a deeper dive into one of my personally favorite combinations.
Why I enjoy Chocolate with my coffee
Occasionally, when I’m working on something – work or a project, and it’s right after lunch, I usually have a cup of coffee around 2:00 in the afternoon. And that’s usually just the right time for me to begin winding down on my coffee intake for the day. In several hours, I want to make sure I’m ready for the sleepy feeling to overtake me just in time for bed somewhere between 9 and 10 pm.
Chocolate also not only puts me in a better mood, but there’s the extra energy that it provides for me. And I usually need it around 2:00 pm when I could start feeling drowsy or groggy.
Sometimes I may be able to fight this feeling off with a quick 15-minute power app (either in my car, at my desk, or bed – if I’m home working). But if I don’t have time, then I’ll need an alternative, and it’s usually a cup of coffee. And instead of drinking a five-hour energy? It’s a cup of coffee for me, and possibly a piece of chocolate.
Does coffee taste better with chocolate?
I actually prefer my chocolate IN my coffee than separately. Having a Hershy Kiss and sipping my coffee alongside it doesn’t necessarily improve the taste of my coffee or make it any sweeter. But I do prefer the additional taste of chocolate within my coffee. That’s one of my go-to syrups actually, whenever I venture out to a coffee shop or coffee house. White chocolate or white chocolate mocha coffee syrups usually work for me in an eight-ounce cup. And I can actually taste the extra coffee sweetness in my coffee.
Now everyone may have their own personal favorite coffee syrup that they prefer and it may not be these two flavors, which is fine. However, the one thing that I’ve noticed in particular with the chocolate flavor syrups is that I don’t need to add any additional creamer or milk. These syrups appear to lighten up my coffee without the need for any additional condiments, which helps me to keep the calories down as well.
Plus – with the additional chocolate syrup, if it’s sweet enough, I’ll usually forgo any additional sugar or sweetener in my coffee. So I would argue that on a personal level, that MY coffee seems to taste better with the additional chocolate flavor
Should I place chocolate directly in my coffee?
This is an interesting concept that I’ve only tried a few times. Now I’ve always played around with adding additional sweets to any of my hotter drinks. For example, whenever I’ve been sick with a stuffy or runny nose, or maybe under the weather in the winter time, I remember dropping a cough drop into my hot tea. I would then inhale the hot vapors while it melts at the bottom of my cup. And if it was lemon flavored, it felt a little stronger.
On other occasions, I’ve taken peppermint hard candy and dropped it into my cup of hot chocolate or hot cocoa. And during the holiday times, I remember taking one of the candy canes off the Christmas tree and stirring it inside my hot chocolate, then sucking it. In these cases, it was barely a mild difference that I noticed. My tea didn’t get any extra taste of lemon in it; it would have been better had I just cut a lemon up and dropped in the cup. And the same thing applies to the peppermint and hot chocolate – I didn’t really taste any difference.
I’ve added chocolate to my coffee a few times, from a finger-sized piece of dark chocolate, or a broken square from a Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar. And it’s not really much of an improvement to my coffee. Either I couldn’t taste the chocolate because it didn’t melt fast enough, or if I waited for it to melt a little – it didn’t help. My coffee didn’t get any sweeter. There may have been a hint of a chocolate flavor in there, but not enough. The bottom line is that it would have been better had I just kept the chocolate on the napkin and ate it alongside my coffee, instead of dropping it in my cup.
But I’m not completely going to give up on this particular method. It became obvious to me that I can just simply take any piece of chocolate and toss it in my coffee and creamer, and VOILA! Expect it to be sweeter or taste perfect. This may take some trial an error on my part.
Conclusion
I also forgot to mention that there are other ways to mix coffee with chocolate as an additional snack that you already know about, such as having your coffee with a couple of chocolate chip cookies, or perhaps a slice of cake. Now when it comes to dessert, that may be stretching it a bit on the extra sugar and calories that your taking in compared to a bite size piece of chocolate. But everyone has his or her favorite treat when it comes to chocolate and it all really comes down to your taste buds.
Thanks for reading!
