A few weeks ago in the midst of a heatwave, Molly and Mike brought us over to Mister Spicee (6889 Victoria, Montreal), a tiny Trinidadian fast food place that specializes in doubles (two pieces of yellow, fried flatbread stuffed with things like chickpeas and goat meat). We picked up a few, along with an order of pholourie (savoury deep fried dough!), and ate the greasy, spicy, delicious mess in a nearby park. When we were done, we ducked into a small Trinidadian market where Molly was in search of a particular masala blend she could use for an attempt at pickled scotch bonnet peppers. While we poked around the store, I found a package of "Tea Chocolate". The small package contained two ping pong sized balls of chocolate, a single nutmeg nut, a few cinnamon sticks and leaves. I bought it.

After some Internet research I discovered that I had purchased Jamaican hot chocolate, a common breakfast drink in Jamaica. The chocolate balls are made of roasted cocoa seeds that have been pounded to a pulp and then rolled into balls. A few days later, I got an email from Molly asking me how the chocolate tea had turned out. At the time it was too hot to even think about drinking hot chocolate, so I waited until now, mid-September, when the air has taken on that early autumn biting chill. I invited Molly over to try it out with me. We skipped ahead and drank the sweet hot chocolate with desert instead of breakfast: my end-of-summer plum crumble, her homemade pistachio ice cream.

(Directions are based on this excellent write-up.)

1 Jamaican chocolate ball
3 tbsp sugar
¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
3 cups water (the recipe suggested a quart, but we found it watered down the chocolate)
A pinch of salt.
Cinnamon leaves
Nutmeg

Grate chocolate ball onto a plate.

Bring the water to boil in the meantime, and then add chocolate and cinnamon to the pot of boiling water.

Allow the tea to boil for fifteen to twenty minutes. Sweeten to taste. Fish out the assorted cinnamon sticks and leaves. Pour into mugs and grate nutmeg to taste into your drink.

And drink. Just a warning - the oils from the chocolate rise to the top of the mug and create a hot slick that you might want to let cool down before taking that first sip.

The package I bought was fairly old, so the flavours were more muted than what I imagine the real thing to taste like. But the grating of the chocolate and nutmeg, followed by a nice slurp of condensed milk makes for a satisfying ritual. With autumn just around the corner, this might be the kind of beverage you want stocked in your kitchen for those days when you need something a little different to cut through the cold.