The Champagne of Hot Chocolates
The days grow shorter, the temperatures starts to drop, and there’s a distinct crispness to the air. Fall camping season has arrived, and with it, hot chocolate weather.
Now we’ve drank a lot of hot chocolate in our time, most of which has ranged from “pretty good” to “Swiss Miss Piss.” Nevertheless, even bad hot chocolate – given the right circumstances – can really hit the spot. But this story isn’t about bad hot chocolate, it isn’t even about good hot chocolate. It’s about truly exceptional hot chocolate. Hot chocolate so good that they call it “Drinking Chocolate.”
Earlier this year we were passing through a Whole Foods in Portland, Oregon, a town where people take their culinary arts very seriously, when something caught our eye. There, in the coffee section, was a brown package with the word CAMP boldly written across it. Further investigation revealed it wasn’t coffee at all, but rather a coffee-infused drinking chocolate by a company named Treehouse Chocolate .
You read that right: Coffee. Infused. Drinking. Chocolate. Right off the bat, we knew we were dealing with true professionals.
While looking over the package we saw that Treehouse was based in Portland. We needed to find out more, so we emailed them right there in the store and asked to meet. That day, Aaron, the founder and one-man-show, emailed us back and we arranged a time to drop by the shop the next day.
In true Portland form, his “shop” turned out to be custom-built shipping container inside a communally operated warehouse. He gave us a quick tour of his workshop and told us about the various steps in his chocolate-making process. With the positive aura of a yoga instructor and the enthusiasm of Willie Wonka, Aaron is exactly the type of person you want making your chocolate. We told him about our upcoming backpacking trip into the north Cascades and he happily “loaned” us a few packets to demo out in the field.
Fast forward to the top of Winchester Mountain. We were staying up at the summit, the sun had just set, and the air was rapidly turning cold. This was most definitely drinking chocolate weather. So we fired up the stove and made ourselves a cup. Unlike other hot chocolates we’ve had in the past, this had a deep, full-mouth flavor profile. It didn’t just wisp down the back of our throat like thinly flavored water. As we sat quietly, trading sips, we could think of no better to way to get into the spirit of fall.
Camp Notes is a big high five to the fun of sleeping outdoors and all that comes along with it. You know, camping and stuff.
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