Audra: It’s cold outside. Sometimes you just want to snuggle up, sit by the fire, enjoy a soothing cup of delicious hot chocolate. But lifestyle expert Mina-Jacqueline Au is here. She’s going to spice things up a little bit. It’s a special hot chocolate recipe show, I’d say. It’s going to make you melt. It’s good for us private ladies that can't have an alcohol too right?
Mina: Exactly.
Audra: Good to have you back.
Mina: Thank you. Especially when it’s so cold out and it gets boring hot chocolate, right, after a while.
Audra: Same old same old is not too good.
Mina: Exactly.
Audra: So this first one over here is a chai tea. So you're mixing that in this?
Mina: Yeah, you can make hot chocolate chai tea basically. What you do is buy cheap packets that are already chai. You know it already has the spices pre-made for you so you don’t need to do the work. 00:40 brew the bag. Make it extra strong. So there's a taste to it. And then mix a little in the hot chocolate. So instead of using milk or water with your hot chocolate, you put the tea in it and you have hot chocolate chai tea.
Audra: That’s you, go to Starbucks at the house.
Okay now, this one here is hot chocolate with a little bit of kick to it.
Mina: Exactly. This is my favorite, its spicy hot chocolate. So basically you just mix your hot chocolate like you normally would. And then what you do is put a half a teaspoon of Cardiman and half a teaspoon of ginger powder. And then, this is the best part, you have chili powder.
Audra: Chili powder?
Mina: Yes. So for me who can't really take spicy, I put a little bit. For my husband, this is what he does to it.
Audra: There's a lot more in there. I know you guys can't see it, but its like covered at the top.
Mina: And it’s really good. It’s not overwhelming. You just get that little bit of after taste.
Audra: Okay, now the next one here is a little deeper. Little mocha coffee going on here.
Mina: Right. Sometimes for me in the morning. I can't, I'm pregnant, so I can't really have a whole cup of coffee. So what I do is I mix a cup of hot chocolate, like I normally would. I definitely use milk for this, because you want it to be rich. And then, you put a tablespoon of instant coffee powder in it. And you have mocha.
Audra: How did you figure this out? Did you just try one out these things?
Mina: Trying it, recipes, and I have friends in the business. So they kind of give me the secrets.
Audra: Helping you out a little bit.
Okay now, the last one is one that we will be able to enjoy later.
Mina: Right, I'm saving that for later.
Now I like, this could be serve cold or hot, okay. If you want to serve it cold, you make your hot chocolate first, put it in the fridge. And what you do is you use rum that goes really well with that. You can use flavored rum.
So I have rum in here and then you just put it in the hot chocolate. Now, what you do is, put a little less water though when you're mixing your hot chocolate. So instead, you're putting some other liquid in there.
Audra: That's going to take the place of it.
Mina: Now what you do is, I unfortunately did not bring whipped cream today, but you can put whipped cream. Little bit of pepper mint. And you have spiked hot chocolate.
Audra: You also say that you can get flavored teas from the grocery store.
Mina: Right, kind of like the way you make your chai tea. Instead of using chai packets, you use flavor tea packets. Any flavor you like.
Audra: Licorice, syrups, anything like that.
Mina: Exactly.
Audra: So it’s a little trial and error. If you go like this, you don’t like it. Go to the next one. Thank you so much.
Mina: No problem.
Audra: Good to have you here Mina.
Mina: Thank you.
Audra: Alright, if you think you guys want to see these recipes, you can go to bettertv.com, just click on the recipe button, they’ll all be there.
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