Chef Jane Jerry shows how Jamaicans make traditional chocolate tea for World Chocolate Day

Retired culinary specialist Chef Jane Jerry marked World Chocolate Day by demonstrating how to prepare authentic Jamaican chocolate tea, a cocoa-based brew deeply rooted in local agriculture and home cooking traditions.

Cocoa is grown widely across Jamaica. Jerry recalled collecting pods as a child, cracking them open, and tasting the pulp before the beans were set out to dry on a sheet of zinc or a barbecue. The wet pulp, she said, has a sweet, tangy character similar to sour-sop juice. Once dried, the beans are roasted in a Dutch pot over a wood fire and stirred until they begin to pop.

After roasting, the outer shell is removed to reveal the dark nibs. Those nibs are pounded in a mortar until the mixture turns glossy — a stage older cooks would call for the fat, or cocoa butter, to rise. The paste is then rolled into a log or a top-like shape and left to dry before grating. Jerry noted that mace, the lacelike covering of the nutmeg, can be beaten in with the nibs for extra fragrance.

To brew the tea, she grated the dried chocolate into a pot with three cups of water and a cinnamon leaf, using three tablespoons of the grated cocoa. Once it came to a boil, she added half a cup of coconut milk and one cup of cow’s milk, stirring as the mixture heated. Grating the chocolate, she explained, exposes more surface area so the drink cooks faster — typically five to 10 minutes — and delivers a bolder flavour than dropping a whole ball into the pot.

After a full boil, she seasoned to taste with condensed milk or sugar, a pinch of salt, about one-eighth teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, the same measure of cinnamon, and vanilla. Alternative milks such as almond or soy can stand in alongside coconut milk. The tea is then strained through a fine mesh.

Jerry linked the oily film that forms on top to cocoa butter, the same fat used in lotions and hair oils, and said what remains after fat is extracted becomes cocoa powder and chocolate. The drink is traditionally served piping hot from an enamel mug — earlier generations used a recycled tin — and sipped with tough crackers. "Have you ever really had it if it don’t burn you?" she asked.