Alhambra Royale

Alhambra is a Moorish palace in Spain, which is a fitting name for this hot chocolate drink. It has flaming cognac added to it. When you make an Alhambra Royale you feel like an alchemist making alcohol in the middle ages. It looks magical.

The flaming cognac is mostly for show. It doesn't add flavor. But the addition to the orange peel produces this orange cognac effect similar to Grand Marnier. The heat really gets the orange oils out of the peel. 

I had to learn how to flame cognac for this drink. Initially I thought the 40 percent spirit wouldn't burn, but you have to warm it to cause evaporation first. Burning evaporating alcohol produces a ghostly blue flame that only appears in a dark setting. Observe the photos below: 

Igniting the cognac warmed over hot water in a ladle. Pouring the dark blue flaming liquid into the hot chocolate mix.

• 1 1/2 oz. cognac
• 1 cup hot chocolate
• wide sliced orange peel
• whipped cream

Fill a mug mostly full of hot chocolate and twist the orange peel and drop it in. Warm cognac in a ladle over hot water (not quite boiling). Ignite the cognac and allow it to burn several seconds before pouring it into the hot chocolate. Take care while pouring that the fire is extinguished while mixing the liquids, which may require stirring. Garnish with whipped cream. 

Brazilian Chocolate (Non-Alcoholic)

If you've ever wanted to try making hot chocolate at home, you know it isn't as simple as melting chocolate in a pan or the microwave and adding milk. This was tough, but worth the effort.

Brazilian hot chocolate involves coffee, rich dark chocolate and cinnamon. There's vanilla extract (or real vanilla bean if you like) in there as well, which makes this a spicy and tropical breakfast drink, or a drink for anytime, actually. But you have to get your stuff together to do this one.

Melting dark chocolate is a pain. Put it in the microwave or on direct heat and you get a hard, burning mess. The recipe calls for a double boiler, but I don't have one. Fortunately I have two sauce pans that stack tightly on top of each other. Boiling several cups of water in the pan beneath gave the right indirect heat to melt the chocolate.

Taza chocolate is a rich stone-ground chocolate with grainy cocoa nibs. It actually melts well but gives a thick texture to the hot chocolate drink.

The recipe is for four servings, which is good. If you go through this much trouble, you should have something to show for it.

• 1 oz. unsweetened dark chocolate (Taza used)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• dash salt
• 8 oz. boiling water
• 8 oz. hot half-and-half
• 12 oz. hot coffee
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Heat water in the bottom of a double boiler on medium high heat. Add chocolate, sugar and salt to the top sauce pan of the double boiler and melt it. Pour heated water on the chocolate and stir to dissolve it. Add coffee, and half and half and continue to stir while heating on the burner. Add vanilla extract and cinnamon and transfer to coffee mugs to serve.