HOT CHOCOLATE

Winter’s here so I’m swapping my usual Friday night tea in Starbucks for a hot chocolate.

“Would you like me to make it extra hot for you?”

“Oh, yes please!” I said, my eyes lighting up like Christmas lights. Last week, it was room temperature at best. And I don’t even have it with cream. This week I expected it to scald my lips and frazzle my fingers as I carried it to my usual table.

Well. Guess what? Lukewarm! I could down it (I’m not going to) without it barely tickling my throat. Presumably they make it with the same hot water they use for the tea... so what’s going on here? 

Health and safety I reckon. Seems a bit of a shame, and possibly a misleading diversion from the trades descriptions act. But then, nobody’s out there buying ‘tepid’ chocolate. Not a thing, is it? And, believe it or not, there are people out there buying hot cross buns. And those things aren’t even pretending to be cross, let alone hot!

So, in typical British fashion I’m going to sit here stewing over my lukewarm chocolate and do absolutely nothing about it. Well. I mean it’s not worth making a fuss over, is it? What’s the late-shift barista going to do anyway? Make me another one with exactly the same process? Put this one in the microwave for 45 seconds and burn her fingers trying to take it out? I can do that perfectly well at home. It just doesn’t seem worth messing up the end of her shift for her.

Nope. I’m just going to stop getting it, and go back to tea. You can’t go wrong with tea. Or perhaps I should fly round Sainsbury’s and get a pot of chocolate powder to take home myself. Then I can burn my own fingers. Maybe I’ll get a pack of toastable, cruciform-impressed buns while I’m at it.