I have been a chocolate lover practically since birth. But my romance with hot chocolate didn't begin until I moved from California to the East Coast and started working a few days a week at a small chocolate shop and cafe that specialized in thick, rich, mind-numbingly delicious hot chocolate.

I don't think you can really appreciate the pleasures of chocolate's liquid, warm sweetness until you've suffered through a week straight of below-zero temperatures, 3-foot snowdrifts and perpetually cold hands.

I spent my first true months of winter acclimating to the cold and to the rhythms of the cafe. The rest of the world may have slowed down, but this was hot chocolate season, when everyone came seeking a bolster against the season's cold, weariness and sadness.

Good chocolate in any form is a captivating substance, but drinking chocolate has a special place in the imagination. Making cup after cup was in many ways far more satisfying than simply drinking it. The smell and sound of milk whooshing and gurgling as the liquid went from bright white to a rich, deep brown. The aromas of chocolate wafting upward, the feeling of the metal canister warming against my palm.

One could measure the consolatory power of this small pleasure in the lines that extended outside the door, sometimes down the block.

I think that what made these drinkers so passionate was that for many this was their first discovery of true hot chocolate, as opposed to just hot cocoa. Hot cocoa is, essentially, a nursery drink. It is soothing and comforting, but not something to get terribly excited about.

True hot chocolate is another thing entirely. It is intense, even overwhelming. Though modern hot chocolate doesn't really resemble older forms of the drink, it does serve as a reminder that for most of history, chocolate was consumed in a liquid, not a solid, form.

When hot chocolate was all the rage among the upper classes in Western Europe, some hailed its curative and health-giving properties, but others called it a dangerous stimulant, bad for the mind and the body. Chocolate's reputation for inflaming the senses lead both to its reputation as an

aphrodisiac and a promoter of sinful behavior.

In 1828, Conrad Van Houten of the Netherlands developed a way of mechanically extracting most of the fat from the cacao liquor, resulting in cocoa butter and partly de-fatted cocoa, which could be ground to a powder. This cocoa furnished a quick drink far easier to make than the traditional hot chocolate.

The voluptuous and costly spices of the old-style hot chocolate were abandoned. Cocoa mixed with sugar soon became a drink of the masses. As the drink changed, so did the language that described it. Advertisements stressed that cocoa was cheap, convenient and nutritious.

Over the decades our tastes in chocolate changed and in many ways revolved. We rediscovered artisanal chocolates made with high-quality beans from the best cocoa-producing regions. We began to crave dark chocolate that tasted of the bean rather than milk chocolate that tasted mostly of sugar. And as we rediscovered chocolate, we also rediscovered the pleasures of drinking it. .....

Hot chocolate is an ideal playground for the home cook. Start with the recipes we've provided below, then experiment with different types of spices, syrups and chocolate.

While chocolate quality matters and can seem expensive, you need relatively small amounts. At a minimum, look for chocolate whose only ingredients are cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla (not vanillin, an artificial substitute) and soy lethicin (an emulsifier in most chocolate).

Try different varieties, percentages and manufacturers. You can either buy large bars and cut them into small shards yourself, or you can buy pastilles or chips that will melt without any chopping.

It's best not to melt chocolate directly, but rather to heat a liquid until it just begins to simmer, then beat the chocolate into the liquid over low heat until it's completely melted and combined.

Milk is usually a given, but it needn't be so. Water works as well. The resultant drink will be less rich, but will actually taste more intensely of chocolate. Soy milk is also an option for those who can't or won't drink milk.

The liquid will affect the texture of the hot chocolate. You also can change the texture by increasing the amount of chocolate or cocoa, mixing it in a blender (as for Mexican hot chocolate) or with an electric whisk, as in the Viennese hot chocolate recipe.

If you're going to the trouble of making a good cup of hot chocolate, it's really a shame to spray on whipped cream from a can.

You can make whipped cream in just a few moments with an electric mixer or even just a balloon whisk (the bulbous shape of this type of whisk makes it ideal for incorporating air into mixtures). Simply beat heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks.

Be careful if you're whipping cream in an electric mixer -- whip it too much and it will turn into butter. Try flavoring your whipped cream by beating in a little sugar or vanilla or folding in lemon or orange zest.

If you're looking for a slightly more challenging project, make marshmallows, which are a perfect project for someone interested in but inexperienced at candy making.

It's almost magical when the clear, thick candy syrup suddenly becomes a pile of white fluff.