The Ultimate Chocolate Martini

Brian's not much of a champagne drinker so, with New Year's Eve coming, I wanted to make a festive cocktail that didn't rely on the bubbly. A chocolate martini seemed a good choice and I asked him to bring home a bottle of Godiva chocolate liqueur. He bought what I asked for but, as I was mixing the drink, he expressed doubt that it would be good.

If you've never tasted Godiva liqueur, let me tell you, it's delicious so I asked him how on earth it could be bad. But he said that these chocolate drinks never have a rich chocolate taste but rather a thin, alcoholic one. Hmm... I made him the drink anyway and wondered if he'd like it after all. Nope. He said it was fine for what it was but not his opinion of a real chocolate cocktail. Hmm...

Well, I consider that a challenge so I set about trying to add more chocolate flavor to my chocolate cocktail. I didn't think a syrup would dissolve properly so I thought about combining cocoa powder and sugar and then realized that exact combination of ingredients was staring at me in my office's pantry in the form of a packet of hot cocoa mix. So, did adding the mix kick up the chocolate flavor? Oh, yeah! Cheers and Happy New Year!

Per Serving:
2 oz. Vanilla vodka
2 oz. Chocolate liqueur
1 oz. Hot cocoa, cooled (see below)
1/2 oz. Creme de cacao
1 oz. Piece of chocolate, melted
1 oz. Piece of chocolate, grated

Melt the chocolate in a shallow dish and dip a cocktail glass into it until the rim of the glass is coated in chocolate. Set the glass in the freezer for a few minutes to set. Prepare a packet of hot cocoa mix but use only 1/2 cup of boiling water instead of the full cup on the recipe. Make sure the cocoa is completely dissolved and set aside to cool. Once cooled, combine an ounce of the mixture with the vodka, chocolate liqueur and creme de cacao in a cocktail shaker and shake over ice. Pour into the chilled cocktail glass and top with the grated chocolate.