By Dev, CN Manager and Mocha Latte Enthusiast
Leaves are turning, there’s a faint chill in the air, and textbooks are being cracked open once more… little is better in life to greet this seasonal change – and increased study hours – than a delicious coffee!
After a rebrand, Diaspora Co. has made a long-anticipated reappearance on our shelves with beautiful, colorful packaging! It seemed only natural to utilize their fantastic and flavor-packed offerings in this next post. Their Panneer Rose petals have been described as “ambrosial” and I couldn’t agree more.
This delicious mocha can be made hot or iced. The custom ice cube pairing can help a cold drink stay cool for even longer without watering it down, and the cubes can also be popped into a hot mocha (or hot chocolate) to cool it down enough for immediate sipping.
For this particular recipe I utilized the following products from our shelves:
In a small cooking pot, combine 2-3 tablespoons of cacao powder with 2 cups of oat mylk (or milk / mylk of your choice). Stir until boiling, when the powder has fully dissolved into creamy richness. This makes roughly enough for one cup of cocoa and enough to also use as the base for several ice cubes to match.
In a second small pot, combine 1 cup of cane sugar, 1 cup of water, and ½ cup of Panneer rose petals. Bring to a boil and simmer together for around 10 minutes, and then carefully strain / remove the petals to produce a lovely rose simple syrup. Your syrup should have some thickness to it without being gooey.
You can now add the rose simple syrup to the cocoa pot, one ounce at a time until you’ve reached a desirable floral flavor. This rose cocoa can be poured straight into ice cube molds; I garnished all cubes with a sprinkle of dried lavender and rose, as well. Let the cubes solidify in your freezer for a few hours, pop them out, and they’re good to go!
(If you’re ready for some delicate rose flavor but aren’t able to make a simple syrup, a spritz or two of Starwest Botanicals’ food grade rose water will also do! I added it into the mix with my own mocha as well. As far as I’m concerned, ‘too much rose’ doesn’t exist!)
The rest is a choose-your-own coffee adventure. You can chill this rose-cocoa mixture in the fridge and add it to cold brew coffee at a 1:1 ratio for a refreshing floral iced drink. You can add in a shot or two of espresso and make a standard iced mocha latte, which is what I did while making this particular recipe. You can also enjoy it hot, or leave out the espresso or coffee entirely for a floral hot chocolate.
Any way you choose, your tastebuds will thank you, and your friends and family will be impressed with your delicately garnished cocoa cubes with gorgeous and colorful flower petals. I also enjoy a slightly tart and fruity depth to my coffee, so I added a small amount of Just Date Syrup’s pomegranate molasses to my mocha latte as well. So good!
In other highly important fall coffee news…..Diaspora Co.’s pumpkin spice mix has also just hit our shelves! It’s that time again, and a great way to treat yourself to a fall favorite with unique single-origin sourcing!