Herbal teas and teas that look like desserts, holistic chocolates loved by bloggers, and trendy protein shakes that promise you a healthy cocoa-flavored lifestyle. But without guilt
Three clues prove it, and it is usually the sign that we are facing a new food trend. You start to see the same ingredient, recipe, or service detail, and if it's somehow new, you're pretty sure it starts out in an uptrend, it'll soon turn into a frenzy trend. Chocolate tea, dried fruit tea and "light" chocolates are a new trend in the drink. In Italy it has not yet been registered as such, but it was enough to do a search in English to find cocoa drinks, chocolate tea and edible tea; which obviously sounds much better than saying "drink and drink". Gastronomic trend since 2019 abroad, as always we are a little later, but to read carefully the pages of history nothing new: we are back in the time of the Aztecs and the Ming dynasty.
Chocolate tea: drink almost N * tella
Chocolate tea is an infusion in which the beans or cocoa beans and cocoa powder give a richer chocolate flavor. Then the cocoa is mixed with tea, roiboos or mate and other ingredients such as spices and fruits, it is drunk hot or cold. In Milan, Giusmìn Tea Lab offers a wide selection, both with theine and in a herbal tea version. Secret pistachio with Pu 'Er black tea, pistachios, aroma, peony petals. Elsewhere with green tea, roasted green apple, coconut flakes, apple pulp, whole pistachios, flavors, cranberry, white cranberry petals; I thought Stupendo with cocoa, pears and candied ginger and the ingenious It ain't n * tella: rooibos flavored with hazelnut and cocoa, reminiscent of a delicious spread. Gourmet, these are naturally sweet teas and therefore the perfect cup to sip instead of dessert or to break up an afternoon with something sweet for a guilt-free indulgence.
Diet chocolates: the passion of influencers
The Aztec xocolatl was a drink that was made simply by combining cocoa and water. Sugar free, dairy free, definitely healthier, is making the rounds on the web as a hot new drink for those looking for a healthy lifestyle (perfect combination with yoga, meditation, and good salads included). I'm back in fashion chocolate puree, rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, to shake and carry in ultra-modern bottles. The new version of the 90s Pesoforma today is called Bulk and Fitvia, which sells them with colorful nuts and caramel teas.
Holistic chocolate is not cocoa
VAIcacao is a brand that markets high-quality cocoa with a controlled supply chain from the bean to the bar with which to prepare holistic chocolates. VAIcacao is a complete product obtained from the stone grinding of cocoa beans, as it is subsequently processed by indigenous communities. It retains a raw texture with no added sugar, an unrefined, artisanal and traceable product that melts on contact with hot water or milk. They define it «ceremonialPrecisely to reconnect with the meaning of the ancient traditions of the Mesoamerican peoples. It is not a European hot chocolate, therefore, to which we add sugar and other ingredients, but "pure cocoa" that by itself expresses all its power and natural acidity.
Fruit tea, but also dry tea, in bags and in the supermarket
Fruit tea has always been around and mixes tea leaves with shells or nuts, so strawberry tea, apple tea or bergamot tea (also known as Earl Gray, flavored with oil extracted from the skin) it is indeed a classic. The novelty is the use of nuts, chocolate or even vegetables and ingredients that are authentic "food". Ready-to-drink versions of major brands remain rare, despite one brand bringing them to the supermarket. Pukka always offers it with exotic tones with cocoa in combination with licorice root and cinnamon, The Ministry of Tea a version with Pu-Erh dark chocolate tea. Kusmi, specialist in flavored teas, offers a version of green tea and almond and a mate version with cocoa and orange. Chamomile Sogni d'Oro for a good night's sleep has been adding other flavors for some time, and the range of fruits and vegetables is the latest addition. They are sold in the supermarket and are pumpkin, cardamom and coconut teas; orange, carrot and pineapple; or in the range of nuts with cocoa beans, hazelnuts and orange; or pistachio, almond and lemon.
In China, for a thousand years
Commercial? If today's hot chocolate comes directly from the Aztecs, you just have to go see what is happening in the first consuming country in the world and this tea literally invented it. In China (thanks to an article by historian Cheng Pei-kai on Thinkchina.org) we read that in a volume from the year 1000, Record of Tea by the author Cai Xiang, it is written that tea should not be mixed with fruits or herbs. as it has a natural scent. A century later, we find traces in Le Classique du thé de thé in which onions, ginger, red dates, orange or mint peels would be added. In the fourteenth century, under the Ming dynasty, in a chronicle of the time on the manners and customs of Shadong, the author mentions pine nuts and walnuts, Chinese olive seasoned with honey, candied orange peel, salted bamboo shoots, sesame and osmanthus. , hazelnuts and pine nuts and even smoked bamboo shoots, green beans, smoked beans, salted cherries, chopped chestnuts, potatoes and confetti. They were already ahead more than a millennium ago.
