What Is Mexican Chocolate And Where Can You Buy It?

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner—this Monday, in fact—and that means it's go time for gift buying. If you've already scoured the aisles of your local drug store, unimpressed with the chocolate selection and bright pink teddy bears, we suggest another option: Mexican chocolate.

Don't expect the mild flavors associated with your average Hershey’s or Ghirardelli offering. Mexican chocolate is bolder and more bitter in flavor. "Intense" is a good word for it. (Much like love itself, amirite?) That's because it's made differently than European-style chocolate—and sometimes with more assertively-flavored ingredients.

Precise methods vary slightly from brand to brand, but all chocolate starts with cacao pods. They're cut open to reveal the cacao beans, which upon removal are fermented, dried, roasted, then cracked open to remove the outer husks from the inner nibs. Those nibs are then ground into what's called a liquor—a paste of cocoa solids and cocoa butter—and from there, most European-style chocolate makers aerate the mixture to give it a smooth texture and mellow out the flavor. But Mexican chocolate makers will skip that step, instead mixing the un-aerated liquor with sugar and cinnamon. This gives the final product a deep bitter flavor and a rustic, coarse texture. From there, different ingredients can be added: Ground chiles, like guajillo, pasilla, and habanero are common, as well as spices and nuts.

Mexican chocolate generally comes in two shapes. The first, and most common, is a disc cut into four to eight triangles. Called "drinking chocolate," it's easily broken into pieces and tossed straight into a mug filled with hot milk. The chocolate melts, and presto! You've got Mexican hot chocolate. But if you'd rather eat your chocolate, instead of drink it? Mexican chocolate also comes in candy bar form for easy snacking.

Store your chocolate in a cool, dry place to avoid sugar bloom (that's when moisture causes sugar to rise to the surface), and it could stay good way past Valentine's Day. Not that we think it'll last long in your pantry—it's just too fantastic in complex-flavored desserts like these Mexican Chocolate Pots de Crème and this tempting Mexican Hot Chocolate Pie.

You can find the good stuff at Mexican or Hispanic grocery stores, but options also abound online—and we've rounded up some of the best.