Hasslacher's 100% Cacao: 100% Natural And Gluten Free

A New Favourite Thing

Well it's been a while. Sorry if you've missed my randomness, the beloved Persian girl has been unwell and I've been in a bit of a state because of it, that mixed with the unbearable heat we've had. Looks like she's on the mend thank heavens and aside of sporting a lovely insect bite on my wrist which I've had a typical allergic reaction to (incredibly itchy, unsightly lump exactly where a watch face would be) all is good.

I've been interested in Cacao since hearing of the supposed health benefits and so I took the opportunity to finally try some when I had a craving for hot chocolate. Oh this stuff is good.

We started off with Cacao discs from Hasslacher's.

The Few Remaining

Just pop a couple into a mug, fill halfway with milk and pop into the microwave (you can do it on the hob but that requires some effort and dirtying a pan). It says on the pack to add 4 discs which I did the first few times but I got a bit hyper from that amount so I've been using 2 1/2 since.

I only fill the mugs halfway with milk because you really do need to give this a good stir to get the Cacao melted down properly, plus I want to drink it straight away and adding cold milk to top it up lets me do that.

100% Cacao, skimmed milk and a squeeze of honey seems pretty healthy to me. 

We've since moved onto the bars shown at the top, you get more and they work out a bit cheaper. Myself and The Glutenite are doing a mug a day currently - though it would be very easy for me to get addicted - so the bars are a better option. 

There's lots of different types of 100% Cacao but we went for Hasslacher's initially as it was the only one stocked in the Tesco we go to, we went for the same brand with the bars because it's lovely stuff, those are from Amazon though.

As mentioned, I was intrigued about health benefits I'd read, especially Antioxidants and the fact that Cacao is 100% natural. When you're as paranoid (and rightfully so) about ingredients like I am, anything that is 100% natural and 100% free from gluten is a joy. If it's doing me good as well as being totally safe AND delicious, well that's a big bonus. I do think that it gives me a bit of a kick start especially if I add a bit of Chilli to it, that's a gorgeous combination.

So I planned on raving about Cacao as an alternative to Chocolate last week but what with The Persian being unwell it got delayed. Now I have even more reason to rave about it because someone left this comment on my Cadbury Gluten Absent List (which by the way has now been updated):

"Be careful. Cadbury in the past few months have started putting an allergen alert MAY CONTAIN GLUTEN on some of their products that used to be listed as gluten free by ingredients. So make sure you still check labels.."

I've checked their list and found two new items added and seasonal products removed but those are the only changes I've found. That's not to say the information in the comment isn't correct, maybe the labelling has changed and they're yet to (annoyingly if true) update the site.

So yes, the wonder that is Cacao. It is scarily strong if you aren't a fan of dark chocolate but it's so easy to sweeten and lower the intensity of the flavour with milk and your sweetener of choice, honey is ideal and my fave. And it's not just for making hot chocolate with, you can use it in cooking too, both sweet and savoury.

So if labelling on our favourite chocolates does change, or if we're feeling in need of a healthier option, us gluten free'ers have always got the luxury of good old 100% naturally gluten free Cacao to delight our taste buds. I'm already a complete convert (and potential addict)!

More soon :)