With midterms weighing on our shoulders, Harriton students are flooded with hours of studying, eagerness to finish, and, of course, stress. This week, I decided to make a quick and yummy fix to ease your stress: spiced hot dark chocolate. Although hot chocolate is not usually seen as healthy, this recipe has a lot of health benefits and stress benefits in ingredients such as dark chocolate, spices, and soy milk.

It is okay to indulge and have sweets sometimes, but beware. Although a little bit of chocolate can help you feel relieved, a lot of treats can make you feel sluggish, tired, and more stressed out than before. This recipe has the perfect amount of sweetness to make you feel relaxed and ready to tackle the midterms.

Most hot chocolates include milk chocolate and lots of milk and sugar, but this recipe has a lot of new ingredients that I have not seen before. Instead of using milk chocolate, the recipe calls for dark chocolate, which is full of antioxidants. Not only does dark chocolate reduce stress, but it can also help lower your blood pressure and it stimulates your brain so you can learn better and faster (perfect for studying!).

Another great ingredient in this recipe is cinnamon. One of the healthiest spices that exists, cinnamon’s scent triggers brain function, helps lower blood sugar, and can even stop the growth of cancer cells! The recipe uses other spices, such as cardamom and cayenne pepper, mostly for flavor, but their scents can trigger different senses that help learning and relieving stress.

The recipe calls for soy milk instead of regular milk. If you do not like the taste of soy milk, skim milk is a good substitute (although soy milk is much healthier than skim milk). I made batches with each kind of milk and they tasted almost exactly the same. Soy milk is good for this recipe because it absorbs the antioxidants in the dark chocolate better than skim milk, allowing you to feel the effects of the chocolate more. Although soy and skim milk are both high in protein and vitamin D, soy milk is fortified with added nutrients, such as vitamin B12, which helps keeps nerves and blood cells healthy, and magnesium, which is a vital mineral that keeps your heart healthy.

This recipe was super easy to make and it took almost no time at all. The recipe called for 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom, and I used 1/4 teaspoon because I love the spice. However, I felt like the cardamom was too overpowering in the end, so I would only use 1/8 teaspoon in future. It took about 15 minutes for the hot chocolate mixture to be completely melted and steaming. Drink it while studying or just as a reward after a long exam. Hope you enjoy!

Spiced Hot Dark Chocolate

Ingredients:

1 quart of soy milk

6 ounces of dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/8 to 1/4 of cardamom

1/8 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon of coarse salt

Directions:

In a small saucepan, combine all of the ingredients and whisk them over medium-low heat until the chocolate has melted completely and the mixture is steaming hot.

Yield: 4 servings