Jaz & Jul’s Organic Hot Chocolate

I’ve been aware of Jaz & Jul’s for some time now, but only had a chance to talk to them properly and pick up some samples at the Southbank Chocolate Festival.

Jaz & Juls just make hot chocolate. They use real chocolate and spices to create a range of different flavours, and have recently switched to using chocolate from The Grenada Chocolate Company as the base for their drinks.

If you’re not aware of them, Grenada Chocolate Company is an amazing enterprise run by Mott Green on the Island of Grenada. They go well beyond the concepts of what’s considered “fair trade” and produce a great product that’s now widely available in the UK.

Jaz & Juls use flaked Grenada chocolate, cocoa, spices and a touch of sugar to produce their hot chocolate mixes. I picked up three of their large (250g) bags to try. They are:

Gingerbread Man

Flavoured with ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla, I was interested to see how this would compare to Hotel Chocolat’s Gingerbread Liquid Chocolate, which I found a little too spicy.

This one has less raw heat and is also less sweet than Hotel Chocolat’s version, which suits me fine. It’s not quite as gingery, with the cinnamon and allspice being more prominent, but I liked it a lot. Most importantly, it tastes of real chocolate – something that often gets lost in the added flavours and sugar of other hot chocolate brands I’ve tried lately. I like this a lot.

Chilli Con Choccy

Flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cloves & chilli. This smells of nutmeg and cinnamon, but tastes of fire! You do still get all the flavours through the heat, but it’s just a tad too spicy for my tastes. I know serious chilli addicts who would kill for it though!

Orangeytang

Flavoured with orange oil, cardamom & cloves. Perhaps my favourite. The aroma of orange and cloves hits you as soon as you open the packet, and when added to hot milk, it tastes almost like a chocolatey mulled wine.

I really like these hot chocolates. They might be a little different from what you’re used to, being made with real, quality dark chocolate and natural flavours. They’re not too sweet (add sugar to taste if that’s your thing) and not completely smooth in texture because of all those spice ‘bits’, but I like that.

Jaz & Juls do other flavours (including a white chocolate version), so check out their website for full details. If you still think Cadbury Drinking Chocolate is the height of hot chocolate indulgence, try one of these, and you’ll never go back.

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