Geeking about chocolate

Mothers always know what their children like to eat or drink.

- CHIT U. JUAN

And they would go out of their way to find food that their kids will really enjoy.This was the case with Mel Medrano, a chemist by education, when she was looking for a hot chocolate drink for her young kids. All the products available in the market had sugar listed as their first ingredient and followed by chocolate flavorings, plus chemicals or additives. Being a scientist, she wondered how she can give her family something healthier to drink, made purely from just three to five ingredients. Seeing none available, she started to experiment with local chocolate tablets or tablea and water, adding some sugar to sweeten the beverage. Due to inconsistent quality of tablea available in markets, her kids would sometimes like it and sometimes they said it tasted like water.

There must be a way to standardize cacao tablets, she thought. She found out that the only way she could ensure consistency is to process the cacao herself. A self-proclaimed geek, she loved experiments and off she went to find the sweet spot of a mix using cacao, skimmed coconut milk powder and sugar.