photo by author

It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

By all accounts, I could have gone in to the office after the big thundersnowstorm. Living pretty close to work, I do not have a hellish commute and anybody who has seen my closet can tell you I am well-stocked on boots and scarves for all situations. Nonetheless, I took advantage of my company’s liberal leave policy and good telework infrastructure and stayed home instead.

Working from home is great for my productivity and, in my case at least, the environment – but by the end of a day inside I tend to get antsy for human interaction. Besides, there was a beautiful snow-capped Washington to tromp around. I arranged to meet a friend at Tryst.

Tryst’s winter menu offers hot drinks, cocktails, and some delicious-sounding options in the middle of that Venn diagram. Obviously, I was going to pick one of those. My companion ordered a classic Irish coffee; I opted for the “Holy Molé Hot Chocolate.”

The Holy Molé starts with a classic hot chocolate, spiced with chipotle, clove, and cinnamon, topped with whipped cream and more cinnamon. The ‘adult’ version comes spiked with Monte Alban mezcal.

Mezcal is trendy, I get it. Everybody is in to mezcal right now and you think I am boring. I do not care. I love the stuff so much. You know what else used to be trendy? Adding chipotle to everything but here I am still enjoying that, too.

The body of the hot chocolate is thinner than you might expect, even once the fragrant, cinnamony whipped cream has been integrated. The consistency is closer to your morning latte than a super-rich “drinking chocolate.” Personally, I prefer it this way and it was a pleasant surprise.

One thing I would have preferred the intensity upped on, however, was the spice. Perhaps the chilies are somehow more pronounced in the non-boozed version, but I think what stalled me at “liked” rather than “loved” on this drink was that I wanted a little more heat. Really, though, the same could be said of so many things.

Brittany Martin

Brittany has tried to leave DC, it just never lasts. She has lived in Chicago, California, and China – but she always comes back home. Brittany is a drinks, nightlife, and style correspondent for We Love DC. Between columns, you can find her on Twitter, Tumblr, or standing by the bar. Email her at brittany(at)welovedc.com.