Hot Chocolate My Way

Years ago I came across an article that claimed a cup of hot chocolate at bedtime was a better choice for people with high blood pressure than a cup of tea... I gave the article to my mother - who at the time lived on her own in an apartment nearby. She had just begun taking blood pressure medication. (Here is a reference to that research.)

(While hunting for that information online, I came across a Harvard study that indicated that cocoa could be good for the brain as well! (Here's the link to that 2015 article!)

I don't know if my mother's blood pressure went down or if subsequent studies have proven this to be true, but I do find that a cup of warm milk or hot chocolate at bedtime sometimes helps me sleep longer in the night before I inevitably wake up. (I say sometimes because I recently tried to test it out, and after a few nights, I woke up earlier than ever!)

But sometimes in the evening - especially in winter - I find that hot chocolate hits the spot! The problem is that I now find the hot chocolate powder I've used for years tastes too sweet. Have my taste buds changed?!

My solution? To create my own flavor of hot chocolate powder by adding heaping tablespoons of cocoa to the powdered hot chocolate in the container and mixing it well, in order to break up the cocoa powder, which tends to clump.

More cocoa and less sugar - hot chocolate my way!