Sciencemadness Discussion Board - How to mix cocoa powder with sugar and milk?

How to mix cocoa powder with sugar and milk?

volta - 13-5-2021 at 09:36

I noticed nobody here talked about that, and I could not find any useful info on Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, YouTube, Reddit, Quora, Yahoo Answers and other famous search engines and q&a sites. Is this more of physical or chemical challenge? I heard it is hydrophobic, but that does not sound helpful. Also heard advice like try harder, mix more, heat...but I prefer my cocoa milk drink cold. Is there any advice except trying to heat more, mix more? Is some catalyst a solution? Worst thing that happens is that after drinking poorly mixed cocoa drink, some cocoa is left dry on bottom of glass, and it tastes so bad! Am I doing something wrong in the way I mix it? Can something fuzzy be added but that won't affect taste or chemical composition?

[Edited on 13-5-2021 by volta]

Antigua - 13-5-2021 at 09:42

Lol...I get what you mean. It's most convenient to first suspend the cocoa powder in milk and then stream that into hot milk that has some cream or butter in it. The extra fat content helps the hydrophobic cocoa not just clump up and separate. After that you can stir it for a bit and leave it to cool. Voila, your cold hot cocoa is ready.

karlos³ - 13-5-2021 at 09:48

I dissolve/suspend the powder actually in a tiny quantity of cold water first, this helps to avoid clumps, and then in milk.
The sugar somehow helps to wet the cocoa, I know the same phenomenon from kratom when I mix that with sugar first, it will turn into a proper wetted suspension in seconds, opposed to at least minutes, under constant stirring.
Can't explain that, just noting an observation.

As usual for anything: stirring is a most important factor.

clearly_not_atara - 13-5-2021 at 10:50

To a 266 mL paper cup there was added 5 cc of pure dry cocoa powder followed by a roughly equal volume of wildflower honey. These were stirred rapidly with a fork until forming a homogenous brown paste. There was then added 50 mL of whole lactose-free milk, and stirred until it could be observed that there was no longer any brown material stuck to the fork. Another 200 mL of milk were added and stirred briefly to form a homogenous tan suspension, which was found to be stable for several minutes and easily re-combined by brief stirring.

While chocolate milk prepared by this method may display some degree of brown flecks, it has not been our observation that this affects the tactile quality of the product, which is satisfyingly smooth.

zed - 13-5-2021 at 11:07

Cold? Cold? Bad idea to make it cold.

Now if you blend instant powdered milk, with granulated sugar, and cocoa powder, and you utiiize a blender, adding water gradually to the mix, you might have some success. But, this is a bad idea.

I have attempted this experiment many thousands of times. Cocoa powder, hates cold milk. Hot Milk will dissolve it.

Best technique is to heat milk quite hot, and add Cocoa powder at the top, with stirring. When Cocoa has dissolved, add sugar.

Commercial products, like Nestles Quick, have been blended to dissolve in cold water or milk.

Your superior tasting, powdered baking Cocoa, resents mishandling. It wants to do, what it wants to do.

If you must defy the Gods, blend the Cocoa with sugar first. Add cold milk, to make a paste, then dilute it.

TheMrbunGee - 13-5-2021 at 22:53

One can wet the powder with few ml of ethanol, do not know what it does to taste, but I do this to suspend hydrophobic powders in water solutions.

Fyndium - 13-5-2021 at 22:57

Get a homogenizer.

draculic acid69 - 14-5-2021 at 01:37

Quote: Originally posted by karlos³

I dissolve/suspend the powder actually in a tiny quantity of cold water first, this helps to avoid clumps, and then in milk.
The sugar somehow helps to wet the cocoa, I know the same phenomenon from kratom when I mix that with sugar first, it will turn into a proper wetted suspension in seconds, opposed to at least minutes, under constant stirring.
Can't explain that, just noting an observation.

As usual for anything: stirring is a most important factor.

Whenever I make a cup of tea I notice that it seems to extract more
from the teabag when there's sugar or Stevia/other sweetener
in it. Probably the same effect your noticing

BromicAcid - 14-5-2021 at 04:07

Take the cocoa powder / sugar and charge it directly to the vessel. Charge a minimum of your colloid to the solids. Form a thick paste and using a spoon ensure a homogeneous texture by pressing out the paste against the walls of the vessel to ensure it is completely wetted and there are no dry clumps. Charge a second small portion of colloid, repeat making a thin paste, note that larger chunks will require additional manipulation to break up. Once a thin paste is formed it is likely possible to add the remaining colloid in one go to the desired dilution.

Or you can use a blender.

As others have suggested heat also works. There are procedures out there for the preparation of chocolate syrups that have decent shelf lifes and simplify the preparation of your desired beverage.

[Edited on 5/14/2021 by BromicAcid]

Keras - 14-5-2021 at 04:39

The Van Houten process was developed specifically to enhance solubility of cocoa in milk. Though it is proprietary and somewhat secret, I've read somewhere that cocoa was treated with a base. Try to mix cocoa powder in diluted sodium hydroxide, and then filter off and wash with water. It might work.

It is outlined here.

[Edited on 14-5-2021 by Keras]

volta - 16-5-2021 at 15:52

I am gonna report results here. I did not need heat or spoon or any other ingredient.
Just put sugar first, then cocoa powder, then tiny amount of milk, just enough to start dissolving by shaking in circles with one hand. And after one minute add rest of milk. And viola! It looked perfectly homogeneous, frothy, tasty.
In the end when I drank all this, there was nothing left except tiny few froths on sides of walls, but not thick enough to be sour or worth scraping. Efficiency 99%. Loss 1%. Of course using bit larger glass or vessel would help me prevent possible spillage. So zed or whoever said that is right.

j_sum1 - 16-5-2021 at 16:48

Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara

To a 266 mL paper cup there was added 5 cc of pure dry cocoa powder followed by a roughly equal volume of wildflower honey. These were stirred rapidly with a fork until forming a homogenous brown paste. There was then added 50 mL of whole lactose-free milk, and stirred until it could be observed that there was no longer any brown material stuck to the fork. Another 200 mL of milk were added and stirred briefly to form a homogenous tan suspension, which was found to be stable for several minutes and easily re-combined by brief stirring.

While chocolate milk prepared by this method may display some degree of brown flecks, it has not been our observation that this affects the tactile quality of the product, which is satisfyingly smooth.

Ooh, CNA. Can I quote you. It is a perpetual struggle to get students to write scientifically, particularly third person past tense.

clearly_not_atara - 16-5-2021 at 19:32

Yeah, of course. I always do it with honey, it's just reliable.

RogueRose - 17-5-2021 at 05:19

Quote: Originally posted by karlos³

Gag!! Just thinking of the smell of kratom I want to vomit all over my desk.

But there are all kinds of powders that are hydrophobic and it's very difficult to break the surface tension of water (or any liquid really) with a repellent powder. I found the best way is using a plastic bag with the powder and adding a little water. then twist the bag closed so i't holding just the liquid/powder then twist it tighter and squish it with your fingers. Once some of it starts absorbing water just twisting the bag often adds the pressure needed to saturate the powders.