Make hot tsokolate with tablea and milk, or reduce it into a thick syrup for an iced milk chocolate drink.
Filipinos won't wait for a cold Christmas evening to have their hot chocolate. Tsokolate, the Pinoy hot chocolate made from tablea, is a year-long drink.
Filipino tablea or tableya, meaning "tablet", are pucks of pure chocolate. They are made with local cacao beans that have been fermented, dried, roasted, ground, and shaped into coins or balls. Tablea serves as the main ingredient for sikwate/tsokolate (Filipino-style hot chocolate) and champorado (chocolate rice porridge).
Some take their tsokolate like coffee: having a hot cup in the morning, maybe with some pandesal or a sugar donut on the side for dunking.
And like coffee, we think there should be a cold tsokolate option.
Here's how: Reduce your tsokolate into a thick chocolatey syrup, then stir it into milk and ice to make a creamy, summer-friendly drink. Add more condensed milk if you prefer a sweeter cup.
Make tsokolate base: In a saucepan or tsokolatera pot, combine tablea and water over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve tablea. Once liquid is boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and add evaporated and condensed milk. Simmer and reduce tsokolate, whisking occasionally to prevent scalding the bottom.
If serving hot, reduce tsokolate to your desired consistency. If serving cold, reduce until tsokolate is thick and coats the back of a spoon.
Serve: For a hot drink, pour chocolate into a mug. For an iced drink, add about ½ cup of cold milk to a glass and top with ice cubes. Pour an equal amount of thickened chocolate on top. Stir and enjoy.
