Hot Chocolate, a Colombian tradition.

Hot chocolate is drank almost every day in the city I was born, Bogotá.

At almost 3,000 meters altitude, located in the Andes mountains of South America, Bogotá is the Capital city of Colombia. The city is not as cold as it used to be, but it rains pretty often, and that's a pretty good excuse for anybody to have a hot drink in the morning or in the afternoon.

In Bogotá we call this recipe "Chocolate Santafereño". It is tipical that we drink it in the morning with scrambled eggs (huevos pericos), some french bread and cheese from the countryside (queso campesino).

Its name comes from the official city name Santa Fé de Bogotá, and the older generations used to drink it to warm up as it was a colder city. The average temperature in Bogotá nowadays is about 68° F to 75° F, we still drink chocolate santafereño all the time, and it still rains pretty often to keep the greenery looking good as always.

Today, most of the diet conscious blogs, nutritionists, doctors and people in general are aware of the health benefits of cocoa the plant where the chocolate comes from. This was the drink for the gods according to our ancestors and I think it still is, even as we, the mere mortals, enjoy the pleasures that chocolate offers.