Nicholas Coates of Rotor Technologies, a Nashua-based manufacturer of unmanned helicopters — sometimes referred to as the world’s largest drones — will give a presentation tonight at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, aviationmuseumofnh.org). The presentation, part of the museum’s ‘Exploring Aviation’ series, is open to the public. Admission is $10 per person.
Thursday, Feb. 19
Meet “Manchester’s Most Wanted” today from 5 to 7 p.m. with the Majestic Theatre at the Millyard Museum in Manchester. This will be an interactive night of high crimes, misdemeanors and mischief at the Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St., Suite 103, Manchester, 622-7531, manchesterhistoric.org), withManchester’s Ten Most Wantedas depicted on a poster from the U.S. Post Office in the Queen City circa 1896. Enjoy cocktails, fun and the odd felony. Tickets are $30. Register at manchesterhistoric.org.
Thursday, Feb. 19
The Manchester Community Music School (2291 Elm St., Manchester, 644-4548, mcmusicschool.org) will hold a faculty concert, “Silver and Gold,” tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. in the School’s recital hall. It will feature Aubrie Dionne on flute, Brandon Newbould on trombone, and Justin McCarthy on the piano. This concert is free and open to the public. Registration through the School’s website is appreciated.
Thursday, Feb. 19
The Riverbend Alumni Company presents the Neil Simon play Rumors at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts, 56 Mont Vernon St. in Milford, tonight and tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 21, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 21
Explosive mixed martial arts returns to the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester, 644-5000, snhuarena.com) today at 5 p.m. with Combat Zone 91. There will be 11 action-packed bouts. Tickets start at $41.
Saturday, Feb. 21
The New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra (647-6476, nhphil.org) will perform The Many Shades of Love, a concert dedicated to romantic masterpieces, today and tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. at the Seifert Performing Arts Center in Salem. Tickets cost $35.
Saturday, Feb. 21
The Stockbridge Theatre (22-98 Bypass 28, Derry, 437-5210, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre) presents the Magnificent Monster Circus today at 2 p.m., performed by Puppet Showplace and CactusHead Puppets. Tickets are $18.
Tuesday, Feb. 24
United Way of Greater Nashua will be hosting a monthly series of five digital literacy classes at the YMCA. This month’s topic is learning to identify online scams. The meeting will be at the YMCA of Greater Nashua today from 2 to 3 p.m. Register at unitedwaynashua.org/digital-literacy.
Save the Date! Thursday, Feb. 26 The Greatest Show on Earth returns to the SNHU Arena in Manchester starting Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. with a run of seven performances through Sunday, March 1. See snhuarena.com for tickets. The show is described as “a high-energy, music-driven experience with bold circus performances, unforgettable characters, and a nonstop party vibe fueled by today’s cultural influences,” according to a press release.
Southwest Airlines will offer nonstop flights from Manchester Boston Regional Airport to Nashville International Airport five days a week (Thursday through Monday) starting Oct. 1, according to an airport press release. A nonstop flight between MHT and BNA, Nashville’s airport, takes two hours and 40 minutes, according to southwest.com.
Play for the cause
The Majestic Theatre, 880 Page St. in Manchester, will hold a bingo night on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6:30 p.m. to benefit the theater. The evening will feature a raffle, door prizes, refreshments and more, according to majestictheatre.net, where you can register in advance.
Manchester movie
The Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St. in Manchester, will show “The Lost Films of Amoskeag” on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 11 a.m. The program includes a black and white film made in the late 1960s during redevelopment of the millyard and a 1978 half-hour program called The Amokseag Transcripts produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, according to manchesterhistoric.org. The event is included with regular admission to the museum; rsvp by calling 622-7531 or emailing history@manchesterhistoric.org, the website said.
Museum days
Some area museums will be open extra days for New Hampshire’s vacation week (Feb. 23-27 for many schools). The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road in Londonderry, aviationmuseumofnh.org, will be open Monday, Feb. 23, and Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in addition to its regular hours Wednesdays through Sundays, with its Elite Flight Simulator operating Feb. 23, Feb. 25 and Feb. 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. for ages 13 and up and storytimes on Feb. 24 and Feb. 26 at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., according to a press release. SEE Science Center, 200 Bedford St. in Manchester, will be open Monday, Feb. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in addition to its regular hours, according to see-sciencecenter.org. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, 2 Institute Drive in Concord, is open daily, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Sunday, March 1, according to starhop.com. The Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St. in Manchester, has a three-day workshop for ages 6 to 13+ running Wednesday, Feb. 25, through Friday, Feb. 27, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to currier.org, where you can find pricing and registration information. The museum’s regular hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Community Players of Concord will hold auditions for the May production of To Kill A Mockingbird on Sunday, March 1, and Monday, March 2, at 6 p.m. for youth and starting at 7 p.m. for adults at the Community Players Studio in Concord. See communityplayersofconcord.org for details.
Kids Coop Theatre will hold auditions for the May production of Newsies for ages 8 to 19 on Sunday, March 1, from 1 to 9 p.m. at KCT Studios in Salem. See kctnh.org for show and membership details and to sign up for a slot.
The Merrimack Parks & Recreation Winter Carnival at Wasserman Park in Merrimack will take place Saturday, Feb. 21, from noon to 3 p.m., and feature a cardboard box sledding contest, ice carving and more, according to merrimackparksandrec.org.
The Hudson Recreation Department will hold a comedy night featuring Corey Rodrigues with Dave Rattigan and Ian Rice on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 8:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) at the Community Center, 12 Lions Ave. in Hudson, according to hudsonnh.gov/recreation, where you can purchase tickets.
The Livery welcomes Christine Tassan et les Imposteures
With an infectious blend of swing music and jazz created by guitar innovator Django Reinhardt, Christine Tassan et les Imposteures formed in Montreal in 2003. It was a time when Reinhardt’s style of jazz had few adherents in the French-Canadian city. That none were Manouche like Reinhardt helped explain the band’s name.
There were other reasons for the moniker. Mainly, that Tassan is a woman in a male-dominated genre, and the original Imposteures were all female. “So we felt a little bit like impostors in that very man thing,” she said in a recent Zoom interview. “Also, we come from different backgrounds.”
That final one’s the rub. Tassan and her band draw from the Django canon but add elements all their own.
“We like to incorporate folk songs,” she said. “Martine, my violinist, comes from a classical background and a lot of traditional Quebecois music. So there’s that influence coming in our compositions and shows. Kind of an impostor, you know?”
Such a melting pot is reflected in the title track from their latest album, Sur la route, which translates to On the Road.
“It has the accents of Jack Kerouac, the chords of Willie Nelson and the fingers of Django Reinhardt,” Tassan told the crowd at last year’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven.
The through line is music that, as Steve Martin once said of the banjo, easily inspires a smile, with Tassan’s playful stage presence taking it home.
“We bring a lot of humor in it,” Tassan said. “When we talk to people in between songs, there’s some kind of participation.”
That an all-acoustic genre also inspires infectious toe-tapping can be traced back to Reinhardt, she continued. “Django heard swing music coming from the States, and Louis Armstrong; they were his main influences … for sure, that’s something that is really lively.”
French-born, Tassan came to Canada not for music, but as an electrical engineering exchange student in the final year of her studies. “A friend of mine was coming to Montreal, so I followed her,” she said. “I stayed one year and really enjoyed the city, and the country. I decided to migrate.”
Music came next. Tassan dabbled in a variety of idioms, beginning with classical.
“Then I did a lot of … more like folk songs, writing and singing my own compositions,” she recalled. In 1998 she discovered some of Django’s CDs and the die was cast. “I was totally blown away.”
Tassan began to transcribe and practice Reinhardt’s solos with a small group of fellow acolytes, later launching her own band.
“From then I saw that there was really something happening with that music, we were really having some success,” she said. “So it started from there and never stopped.”
The Imposteurs lineup has changed over the years, but the one constant is violinist Martine Gaumond. “She’s been with me nearly since the beginning,” Tassan said. “We do a lot of arrangements together, and we are the heart, I would say, of the band. She plays the violin beautifully, and she writes all the little vocal harmonies we sing.”
The current lineup is rounded out by upright bass player Mathieu Gagné and his longtime compatriot, guitar player Francis Tetu, who brings a unique approach to their music. “Not exactly a traditional way … but he is a very, very virtuoso guitarist,” Tassan said.” Both joined in early January.
After playing at Wolfeboro’s Friends of Music to start February, Tassan and her band will perform at Sunapee’s Livery to follow a sit-down Valentine’s Day dinner. It’s Tassan’s first show at the historic venue. After, they’ll head home.
“We’ve been playing several times in New Hampshire, it’s fun,” she said. “It’s a beautiful place.”
Christine Tassan et les Imposteures – Dinner & Show When: Saturday, Feb. 14, at 5:30 p.m. Where: The Livery, 58 Main St., Sunapee Harbor Tickets: $50 at thelivery.org
The vegan eatery finds a new brick and mortar home in Concord
K.S. LeBlanc is happy to put down roots.
LeBlanc is the owner and operator of Sleazy Vegan, a popular food truck that has finally found a permanent brick-and-mortar location after a long journey.
“When we first started, we opened as a ghost kitchen back on April 1 of ’22. In September of this past year we were told that that place was no longer going to be available to us, and so we had to skedoodle. We had to find a new commercial kitchen to do our catering from and to be our commissary for food trucking, even though we don’t have a food truck exactly right now. We moved to what was formerly known as State Street Kitchen in Concord. There were actually two identities here. There was State Street Kitchen that was meant to be a pay-by-the-hour community-based kitchen for [new entrepreneurs]. And then in the front there’s a retail space that was, for a while, Pilar Art Studio. When we reached out to the owner of this building, to see about coming in and really having a much bigger footprint than just a community kind of user and taking over the kitchen and using that front spot, he was very amicable to the idea, and loved the idea of having the space get used more than it had been. So we moved in here in October and we took over that front retail spot as the Sleazy Vegan Cafe. And we’ve actually been running from here from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon, since October.”
Since then, LeBlanc said, she and her chef have been fine-tuning their menu, focusing on baking.
“We did all of our Thanksgiving catering from here,” she said, “all of our Christmas catering from here. Lots of pies. We’re making sourdough bread every week. We’re making three or four different kinds of vegan muffins every week. We’ve got … a sourdough cinnamon roll that we’re making every week.”
As of this week, however, the Sleazy Vegan will be open all day, LeBlanc said.
“[It will be] a full-service day here, where we’ll be running breakfast, lunch and dinner from the new location. We did two seated six-course dinners that were really great. They were lovely. It’s very private, kind of glam up the front, and the seating is limited to 10 or 12 people per service. So it’s very intimate and very quiet and private and a little more glammed up version of sleazy vegan chefery going on. We did two of those events in January that were fantastic, and we have another event coming up for Valentine’s Day. We’re doing a 6 p.m. service — a six-course dinner — and an 8 p.m. service.”
“So now there’ll be kind of two locations that will be here in Concord,” LeBlanc said. “There will be the Sleazy Vegan Cafe, which will be in the front, and then Sleazy Vegan Mobile Catering is in the back. And that’s where we’ll be doing our catering and our cooking classes. We’ll be hosting a Food is Medicine meetup once a month. At each meetup we will bring in an expert to help guide us through some plant-based health secrets and some plant-based health lies that we might believe and help us get healthier and more educated around what we can do for our health with plants. Our next one is going to be Feb. 18.”
LeBlanc said the new location gives her confidence that there is a demand for high-quality, plant-based food in Concord.
“People come here,” she said, “and it’s not by accident. They didn’t just accidentally show up someplace where everything happened to be vegan on the menu. They’re coming here because this is what they wanted, and they’re very excited to have some place where they can look at a menu and know that everything on the menu is right for them.”
The Sleazy Vegan 205 N. State St., Concord, thesleazyvegan.com. Open Wednesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Featured photo: Sleazy Vegan Concord location. Courtesy photo.
Sherlock tale re-told in Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B
The game is afoot, and the many tropes made famous in tales of the world’s greatest detective are extant in Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B. The Community Players of Concord production, directed by Vicky Sandin, runs for three shows, Feb. 13 through Feb. 15, at Concord Civic Auditorium.
As with all Sherlock mysteries, there’s a twist. In what she calls “cheerfully desecrating the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” playwright Kate Hamill reimagines the famous sleuth as a woman, along with her sidekick. In the process, she looks at their stories through a fresh and funny lens.
This is Sandin’s second Hamill production for Community Players. She previously directed her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 2023.
“I just know the vibe that she’s going for,” Sandin said by phone recently. “Kate Hamill and I are very tight in my eyes.”
Despite gender bending, familiar pieces are in place in Hamill’s play.
“What she did was modernize the canon,” Sandin explained. “Anybody who’s a Sherlock fan or who has read the stories will recognize tidbits from Conan Doyle’s original stories; she’s put those in there into the play as well.”
As Sherlock (a girl’s name too, but don’t call her Shirley), Suzanne Watts shines.
“This part was written for her, it’s just her all over,” Sandin said, adding that audiences will love her RP, Queen’s English accent. “I’ve always been so impressed by her acting charms, so I really wanted to work with her.”
Watts evokes the frazzled demeanor of television lawyer turned “cop-sultant” Elsbeth, with a distinct difference. “Our Sherlock is very much like that in the sense that she is able to put things together like Elsbeth and arrive at the solution sooner than everybody else,” Sandin said. “But she is not modest about her talent.”
Julia Kehr plays Ms. Watson, an American who’s moved to London for what one critic termed “an adult gap year,” who becomes Sherlock’s codependent flatmate. Sandin worked with Kehr in Pride and Prejudice. “She’s a very funny, comic, physical actor, and I just love watching what she brings,” she said.
Together they crack cases, all while Holmes is nagged by a crime she can’t quite name. “She’s solving all these little mysteries with Watson and she’s finding out that there’s a larger force at play … Holmes goes a little mental,” Sandin said. “When she figures out who’s doing all of this, it’s from the canon, but it’s not how you expect it to turn out.”
Travis Laughlin, who played the arch Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, is bumbling Inspector Lestrade. It’s a world away from his Masterpiece Theatre character, said Sandin. “There’s a whole level of amusement and laughter he’s brought to this part that I never knew existed … he is just laugh-out-loud funny.”
Rounding out the versatile cast are Heather McFadden playing Irene Adler with what Sandin termed “a lot of sexiness and suave,” Players veteran Karen Braz as Mrs. Drebber, Griffin Stuart as Texas tech billionaire Elliot Monk (the play happens amidst 2021’s late pandemic jitteriness), and Linda Pilla as grieving widow Mrs. Hudson.
Apart from the two Americans, everyone on stage uses different accents, but Pilla’s is genuine. “She was actually born and raised in Scotland, and in his books Conan Doyle made Mrs. Hudson a Scotswoman,” Sandin said. “She brings her native brogue from Glasgow … and does a wonderful job.”
As rehearsals have progressed, Sandin’s casting decisions have been reinforced.
“They know these characters more than I do,” she said. “They’ve started to interpret them in ways that are refreshing and new, which bring ideas on how to enhance the characters that they’ve built … that, to me, is the funnest part.”
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson –Apt. 2B When: Friday, Feb. 13, and Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m. Where: Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord Tickets: $22 and up at communityplayersofconcord.org
Featured photo: Suzanne Watts (Sherlock), Julia Kehr (Watson). Courtesy photo.
According to Catarina Mahoney, co-owner of Brookford Farm, it’s important to drink hot chocolate in cold weather, which is why she only serves it once a year, at Christmas with the Cows, the farm’s holiday celebration.
“We make it here,” she said. “We developed the recipe ourselves. I use really good cocoa — organic, fair-trade and a full-fat bean. It’s really important for me that the flavor is very strong, so that it really tastes like something.”
For the chocolate-lover
Rachel Mack, co-owner at Loon Chocolate in Manchester, said the best hot chocolate takes you back to basics.
“I love all ways that you can consume chocolate,” Mack said. “And as long as humans have been consuming chocolate, we’ve been drinking it. It started in a little different form than what we consider hot chocolate today, but I like hot cocoa that’s part of that same lineage. Delicious. We have had a cold, cold, cold New Hampshire winter this year. So I think maybe we all need just a little bit of extra hot chocolate for this winter.”
“We do hot chocolate two ways at Loon Chocolate,” she said. “We have a powdered hot chocolate mix, which is easy to make, easy to grab, and to have in your cupboard for when you have those unexpected snowstorms.”
“The mix only has cocoa powder, organic cane sugar and sea salt,” Mack said. “There’s no milk powder added at all. What’s awesome about that is you can add it to whatever kind of milk you want or a dairy-free alternative. So, I know I personally am leaning away from milk right now, so I like having the option for a dairy-free alternative. The other thing you can do, that I think is delicious — it’s a little more of a treat — is to actually turn one of our chocolate bars into a cup of hot cocoa. You can sit down and concentrate and you’re just enjoying that chocolate. I usually take about two-thirds of one of our chocolate bars — that would be one and three quarter ounces, maybe, maybe a little less. And you can use milk chocolate or you can use dark chocolate. I personally really love our Puerto Rico bar to make hot chocolate. It’s a 65 percent dark chocolate. [The intensity of dark chocolate is often measured by the percentage of cocoa solids it has.] So the Puerto Rico bar is a little bit sweet, has a really fudgy flavor, and so when you’re mixing that with whatever kind of milk you want it just has a decadent, creamy deliciousness; it is very chocolate-forward. But I can’t say that I don’t enjoy a little, little extra whipped cream now and then.”
Mack said a good cup of hot chocolate can benefit from the addition of a little spice.
“I add cinnamon quite often,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to really enhance the flavor. And, you know, cayenne makes a delicious chocolate. For as long as people have been drinking chocolate they’ve also been adding spice to their chocolates. It’s classic flavor, and if you are the kind of person who likes your food to bite back a little bit, I think cayenne is delicious.”
Consider the cacao
Maggie Prittie is a chocolate expert.
“I’m a chocolatier, a chocolate maker and a chocolate educator,” she said. When she eats or drinks chocolate she thinks about its history.
“Chocolate started roughly about 5,000 years ago. It was first consumed in a drinking form for the elite. The Spanish came to Central America and they brought it back to Spain and they began chocolate drinking — cacao cafes, which came way before coffee houses. It went from Spain and then to Germany. So it started spreading throughout Europe — but always for the elite.”
So good hot chocolate should be something you would feel good about serving to royalty.
“And that starts with a good chocolate,” Prittie said. “And that starts with the basic products, which is your cacao beans. How are they grown? How are they fermented? How are they dried? Were they properly taken care of? There’s a lot that goes into the proper production of chocolates that many people don’t know about or understand. Personally, I would look at the origin of the cacao and the additives. Be aware of your additives. You want to make sure that you do have some fat in there, which would be your cacao butter.”
Hot Chocolate Bar at Beccari Choclates. Photo by John Fladd.
European-style
Greg Chenevert is the head chocolatier at Beccari Chocolates in Hudson. He said the flavor of hot chocolate helps people step away from their stress.
“When people come into our shop,” he said, “I insist they sample something. Try whatever you like. Go crazy. It’s fine. We have something we call ‘the chocolate pause.’ When you have Beccari chocolate, the rest of the world fades away for a moment. Whatever’s going on, you have that moment where you’re just focused on the chocolate. And it’s wonderful.”
“A year ago, I got tired of drinking hot cocoa in America. And I’ve traveled to Europe, had European hot chocolate, loved it and decided to come up with a formula, a recipe for that hot chocolate and sell it here. So I spent the time, did the work, and now I’ve got a thick, creamy, European-style hot chocolate. It’s not so sweet. The way that I make it here, it has a touch of sugar in it. I mean a touch — like a teaspoon per quart — because I make it with sweetened condensed milk. I came up with the European, delicious flavor and people liked it. Generally, their statement is that it’s like drinking a chocolate bar. They try it and their eyebrows go right up and wow! And everybody, but everybody does this. We actually turn it into a frozen hot chocolate in the summer, so you can have it year ’round. People love that as well. They were surprised by the concept of frozen hot chocolate.”
Flights of fancy
Many of us have had coffee flights, or beer or wine flights — small samples of different varieties of the food or drink in question, served side by side to allow us to compare and contrast them. At The Spot Eatery in Hooksett there is a hot chocolate flight.
“It’s four different kinds, 4-ounce servings,” said Sarah Lucas, co-owner of The Spot. “We have flight flavors that we’ve set up, but then also you can make your own and just go wild with it.”
The Spot’s flavors of hot chocolate are themed around different places, Lucas said.
“Right now we have a couple of … flights,” she said. “We were inspired by local ski mountains. We have an M&M flavor for Pats Peak. We have a caramel one for Cannon Mountain. We do s’mores; we do mint. Right now, because of the Super Bowl, we’ll have a Drake Maye flavor that I believe is going to be a chocolate chip cookie flavor, but then we’ll do more places. We’re planning a New England version, and a Seattle, which I believe is going to be another coffee-related one, so we’ll have a shot of espresso in the hot chocolate as well.”
Lucas and her staff use milk for their hot chocolate, she said, and semi-sweet chocolate instead of cocoa powder. “And then we also do a couple of white chocolate-based ones as well,” she said.
The hot chocolate bar
For Chris Guerrette, owner of Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candies and Creamery in Dover, four types of hot chocolate sounds good but is just a starting point.
“We do have this crazy thing we do,” he said, “maybe twice a year, with unlimited toppings — a Hot Chocolate Bar. We have, I don’t know, about a dozen or 16 or so toppings available. Customers come in, they get a big giant cup. We fill it halfway with hot chocolate, a whole bunch of marshmallows, whipped cream, and then every topping you could think of under the sun, just like a sundae, you could have as many of them as you want. It’s a little crazy.”
Guerrette said the hot chocolate at Lickee’s and Chewy’s has a dairy base.
“It’s heavy cream. It’s whole milk, a special dark chocolate mix, and we add gourmet chocolate to it as well. So it’s a nice, really flavorful hot chocolate without it sort of being almost over the top where it’s almost too thick or too strong in any certain direction. And we make about 15 different flavors, with Torani syrups, as well as things that we have in the shop like hot Nutella. So we’ll add actual Nutella and then blend that together and then top it with various toppings. The most popular of our toppings is where we take a big old scoop of our house-made marshmallow cream and we put it on top of the hot chocolate and toast it with a torch …. [Y]ou end up actually having to eat that marshmallow with a spoon.”
Cocoa powder vs. hot chocolate powder Cocoa powder is the dried and ground-up solids of a cocoa bean. It hasn’t been sweetened or played with in any way. It’s nothing but chocolate flavor. As is often the case, you get what you pay for. The higher the quality of the cocoa, the more it will cost. Hot chocolate powder is a mixture of cocoa powder, sweetener, usually powdered milk, and sometimes dehydrated marshmallows. The two powders are not interchangeable.
Marshmallow topper
Krista Mellina, owner of the Twisted Mallow Co., sells a hot chocolate mix that includes her specialty marshmallows.
“There’s no dairy in it,” she said, “but it’s still very rich and has hints of vanilla from some of the sugar that I put into it — vanilla sugar. But that’s not the focus of my company. It’s been a nice pairing with some mini marshmallows that I’ve made. I’ll cut them up and bag them and attach them to the little bag of hot chocolate. The favorites are vanilla, of course, and peppermint and cinnamon and a raspberry chocolate. Those seem to be the ones that people gravitate toward. I was offering people the vanilla, but they could have a choice. They could pick whatever marshmallow flavor they wanted with their hot chocolate mix as they were buying it.”
Mellina said it’s a bit of a mystery how hot chocolate and marshmallows got together to begin with.
“I think it might have started with Fluff,” she said. “Like parents would put Fluff in their kids’ hot chocolate and then the marshmallows kind of became a thing. Kids love the Fluff. It’s foamy and it adds a little bit of different flavor. Sometimes I feel like my mom did it because when you’re taking your first sips, it’s so hot, it would kind of buffer the hot.”
Regardless, Mellina said, “There’s not enough hot chocolate in our lives. You can always have more.”
The cocoa bomb
When it comes to rich hot chocolate at home, Jaime Metzger, the manager of Granite State Candy in Manchester, said what you’re looking for is called a “cocoa bomb.”
Cocoa Bombs from Granite State Candy Shoppe. Courtesy photo.
“It is a chocolate shell and it is filled with hot cocoa mix,” Metzger said. “You can fill it with cocoa and marshmallows, you could do peppermint, you could do caramel, you could do anything. The whole fun thing is putting it in and then pouring hot milk or hot water over it and letting it open up. And then you stir it up. Six or seven years ago I saw people making cocoa bombs and said, ‘Hey, we should do that. Why aren’t we doing it?’ So we started doing it in the first year and we couldn’t keep up with demand. We kept getting orders after orders after orders, and finally we had to tell people no, no more. But it’s cool because it’s our chocolate and … you can do it with water, you can do it with milk, you can do cream, you can do any of them.”
Metzger’s personal favorite is a salted toffee version.
“Because,” she said, “you know, salt makes everything better. It just takes it to a whole new level. The shell is half dark chocolate, half milk chocolate, with hot cocoa mix and toffee pieces inside, and then toffee pieces on the outside with a sprinkle of salt.”
Hot, hot chocolate at home
As chocolate expert Maggie Prittie said, Central Americans have been growing and developing cocoa for 5,000 years or more. The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency and credited chocolate with mystical abilities and increased fertility. There is a legend that the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II drank 50 goblets of it a day. The Aztecs drank it unsweetened and heavily spiced, in a water base.
Here is a recipe, by me, that takes inspiration from cocoa’s origins.
Aztec-inspired hot chocolate
On advice from Catarina Mahoney of Brookford Farm and the staff at Loon Chocolate, this take on hot chocolate has a water base and is dairy-free. Because modern palates are accustomed to chocolate that ranges from semi-sweet to very sweet, this recipe is sweetened with hot honey. It can be adjusted for spice-phobes or vegans. It is very rich and deeply satisfying, with a subtle kick of musky spiciness from the hot honey.
1/3 cup (52 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 cups (900 g) water – Milk works well, as does rice milk.
¼ cup (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder. (This is not the same as powdered hot chocolate mix.)
1/2 cup (168 g) hot honey – This is honey that has been infused with chilies. You can find it in most supermarkets. If you are deeply suspicious of spiciness, you can use regular wildflower honey. If you don’t eat honey, you can substitute half a cup of brown sugar, with a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla
In a large saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, cocoa, salt, and hot honey, with about a cup of water, or whatever you are using as a base. Whisk it over medium heat until it is thoroughly incorporated. You’ll know when you’ve hit that point when you can’t get any melted chocolate to stick to your whisk.
Whisk in the rest of the water, and heat the mixture to a low simmer. Remove it from the heat, and whisk in the vanilla.
Makes just over a quart (32 fluid ounces) of hot chocolate, or approximately five servings.
The hot cocoa panel
Catarina Mahoney is co-owner of Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com)
Rachel Mack is co-owner at Loon Chocolate (195 McGregor St., No. 121, Manchester, 932-8887, loonchocolate.com)
Maggie Prittie is a chocolatier and chocolate educator (worldwidechocolate.com/community/prittie-chocolat)
Sarah Lucas is co-owner of The Spot Eatery (1461 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 664-4249, thespoteatery.com)
Chris Guerrette is the owner of Lickee’s and Chewy’s Candies and Creamery (53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com)
Krista Mellina is the owner of Twisted Mallow (533-8455, twistedmallowcompany.com)
Greg Chenevert is the head chocolatier at Beccari Chocolates (203 Central St., Hudson, 577-8817, beccarichocolates.com)
Jaime Metzger is the manager of Granite State Candy Shoppe (832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com)
Featured photo: Lickee’s and Chewy’s Hot Chocolate Bar. Courtesy photo.
