Author Archives: Steve Wallace

Hot chocolate recipe with chilies and vanilla bean

Omanhene “Cleopatra” Hot Chocolate

A luxurious rich hot chocolate, with notes of chili pepper and real vanilla bean.

Omanhene “Cleopatra” Hot Chocolate
Recipe Type: Drinking Chocolate
Author: Chef Francois Kwaku-Dongo
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 4
A luxurious, rich hot chocolate with a touch of chili pepper and real vanilla bean. Perfect for a romantic evening.
Ingredients
  • 1 vanilla bean (split lengthwise)
  • 8 oz Omanhene 80% Baking Chocolate
  • 7 cups whole milk
  • 1 red chili pepper
  • 2 Tbs honey
  • Pinch of salt
Instructions
  1. Pour the milk in a saucepan.
  2. Add the split vanilla bean to the saucepan and bring milk to a boil for 5 minutes, then remove the vanilla bean. Remove milk from heat.
  3. Meanwhile, finely chop the chocolate into 1/4 inch pieces. Place the chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl and place bowl over a saucepan half full of simmering water. Using a rubber spatula, stir the chocolate constantly until melted.
  4. Immediately pour the melted chocolate into the milk and vanilla mixture and whisk until well combined.
  5. Cut the chili pepper in half, remove seeds and rinse pepper well.
  6. Chop the chili pepper into extremely fine pieces and add it to the hot chocolate.
  7. Add honey and salt, stirring until well combined and smooth.
  8. Pour into mugs and serve hot.

 

A Visit to a School in Ghana

I thought you might enjoy a visit to a terrific school located close to our production facility in Tema, Ghana. First Star Academy is a relatively new private school whose students pay modest fees. The school touts outstanding academic performance and out of some 26,000 elementary and secondary schools in Ghana, First Star Academy ranks among the two dozen or so top schools in the country — a remarkable achievement for a school without the alumni resources of some of the legacy private schools that have been around since British colonial times.

Omanhene in the UK

Ghana was a former colony of the United Kingdom and was the first sub-Saharan country to gain its independence, so there is an enormous historical legacy here. It is a legacy that bears the full measure of very mixed emotions for many Ghanaians. It was important for Omanhene to show that Ghana has come of age and can now produce not simply the commodity crop of cocoa but it now manufactures luxury chocolate that can compete with the best Europe has to offer.

Continue reading →