What is it about the word cocoa that immediately conjures up images of kids in colorful winter hats adorned with fluffy pom poms and grasping with two hands a cup of rich, dark hot cocoa?

Now I can hear the grumblings of a marshmallow war, “She has more than me!” and the stern, but gently reassuring parental reply, “No, you both have the same number of marshmallows. I counted.” Marshmallow war successfully averted.

Next comes the sound of whipped cream being piled high and dusted with crunchy bits of peppermint and, of course, more cocoa.

Whether you enjoy hot chocolate or hot cocoa, marshmallow or whipped cream topping, may you fully enjoy National Cocoa Day this December 13th.

We invite you to stop by any of our Seattle-area Mocha Café locations to try our Viennese Cocoa (pictured in our feature image above) or a tasty cup of hot chocolate.

What’s Your Chocolate Number?

Don’t know what your chocolate number is? Start with our most popular hot chocolate drink, Milk Hot Chocolate. It has 41% cacao and consists of molten milk chocolate and steamed milk. If you like creamy hot chocolate, this is the choice for you.

Image: Milk Hot Chocolate

For something a little richer, order our Ephemere® Dark Hot Chocolate. The ingredients include steamed milk and our signature Ephemere® molten chocolate sauce (coming in at 52% cacao on our chocolate scale).

For the white chocolate aficionados out there, our White Hot Chocolate drink made with molten white chocolate (31% cacao) and steamed milk awaits you.

Images: White Hot Chocolate, left and Ephemere® Dark Hot Chocolate, right

Explore the Dilettante Chocolate Scale

You can have any of our molten chocolates along with sweetened or unsweetened dutch cocoa powder.

Introducing the Ripples - Next Level Latte Art

Our Dilettante Mocha Café at Bellefield Office Park is the new home to a Ripples machine. What does that mean? We can now put custom designs on top of a drink as long as there is steamed foam, i.e., cocoa, hot chocolate, lattes or mochas.

See the words "Let it Snow' printed on the White Hot Chocolate drink photographed above? That's the Ripples at work.

Leah Anderson, Manager of the Bellefied Mocha Café who is a fan of the machine described the Ripples as, “the high-tech version of latte art” and says customers are loving it.

We can Ripple a design of the barista’s choice or your can download the app, send the image to our Ripples machine and we'll print it on top of your drink.

How does it work?

Similar to what ink in a printer does to paper, the Ripples uses Inkjet technology to print coffee powder onto the drink foam.

How long does it take?

Think having a custom printed design will slow down your order and make you late for your afternoon business meeting? Think again. It only takes a few seconds to get Ripples art added to your next latte or hot chocolate drink order.

First-Timer Ripples Recommendation

Since the Ripples uses coffee powder to print the graphics, the lighter the drink (and respectively, the drink’s foam) the better the design shows up. That makes the Milk Hot Chocolate a great choice to see your design show up clearly.

Interested in having your custom message or image printed onto your next cup of coffee or hot chocolate? Simply download the Ripples app, upload your image and send it to the Bellefield Ripple Maker. Or let our baristas surprise you with the latest trending designs.

Currently the Ripples machine is only available at our Bellefield location.

Hilary

Hilary is the Ecommerce Marketing Manager at Dilettante Chocolates. She started building besides while working in the broadcast television industry. In her spare time, she seeks outdoor adventures that involve mostly hiking and running. Her trail mix features a lot of chocolate, but you probably already knew that.