Vegan Hot Chocolate

Bridge City Roasters opened on Saturday, February 10th. I drove to Portland — three hours, rain the whole way — with a cooler containing: kimchi, kimchi fried rice, and Korean coffee bread. Kevin met me at the door of the shop wearing an apron with the Bridge City logo and looking like a person who has dreamed this exact moment for years and is now standing inside the dream and can't quite believe the floor is solid.

The shop is beautiful. Small — twelve seats, a counter, the roaster visible through a glass partition in the back. Lisa designed the interior: warm wood, exposed brick, plants. The coffee menu is focused: pour-over, drip, espresso, cold brew, all from beans Kevin roasts himself. The smell — roasted coffee, warm and deep — filled the space like a welcome. Kevin made me a pour-over of his signature blend, and it was extraordinary: balanced, bright, with a sweetness that lingered. My brother made this. My brother selected these beans and roasted them and dialed in the grind and heated the water to the precise temperature and poured it through the grounds in a steady spiral, and the coffee that emerged from that process is excellent, and he is excellent, and the shop is excellent, and I stood in Bridge City Roasters on opening day drinking my brother's coffee and I was so proud I couldn't speak.

I put the kimchi on the counter beside the sugar and cream. Kevin looked at it and said, "You brought kimchi to my coffee shop." I said, "Kimchi goes with everything." He said, "You know what? It does." And he opened the jar and ate a piece with his coffee and I ate a piece with my coffee and we stood behind the counter of Bridge City Roasters on opening day, two Korean adoptees, drinking coffee and eating kimchi, and the combination shouldn't work but it does, the way we shouldn't work but we do, the way everything about our lives shouldn't add up but does.

Twenty people came on opening day. Not a mob. Not a line around the block. Twenty people who saw the "Grand Opening" sign and walked in and tasted Kevin's coffee and said "this is good" and some of them bought bags of beans and some of them said they'd come back and twenty is enough. Twenty is the beginning. Twenty is the foundation of a thousand, and a thousand is the foundation of a business, and a business is the foundation of Kevin's new life, built on coffee and sobriety and the stubbornness that runs in this family like a genetic trait we didn't inherit but chose.

I drove home to Seattle on Sunday, tired and happy. I made kimchi jjigae at 9 PM, standing at my counter, and the jjigae tasted the way it always tastes — sour, spicy, mine — and the taste was also Kevin's coffee and the rain on I-5 and the pride of watching your brother open the door to a shop he built from nothing. February 10, 2018. Bridge City Roasters. Day one. Kevin is open for business. The building continues, in Portland and in Seattle, in coffee shops and in kitchens, by two people who were born in Korea and raised in Bellevue and are building, stubbornly, beautifully, their own versions of home.

I drove home from Portland in the rain, still full of kimchi and pride, and by the time I pulled into Seattle and stood at my counter making jjigae, I realized the whole day had lived inside warmth — Kevin’s coffee, the steaming shop, the soup I made myself at 9 PM just to have something to do with my hands. That feeling — of holding something warm after a long, full day — is exactly what this vegan hot chocolate gives me. It’s what I make when I want to sit with a good thing just a little longer.

Prep Time: 2 minutes | Cook Time: 8 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

2 cups oat milk (or other plant-based milk)
3 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 tablespoons maple syrup, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ounce dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher), finely chopped
Optional toppings: coconut whipped cream, a pinch of flaky salt, shaved dark chocolate

Instructions

Combine base. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the oat milk, cocoa powder, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and sea salt until the cocoa powder is fully dissolved and no lumps remain, about 2 minutes.
Add chocolate. Add the chopped dark chocolate to the saucepan and continue to whisk gently as it melts into the milk, about 2–3 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil; adjust heat as needed to keep it at a gentle simmer.
Heat through. Continue warming, whisking occasionally, until the hot chocolate is steaming and fully smooth, 2–3 more minutes. Taste and adjust sweetness with additional maple syrup if desired.
Froth (optional). For a café-style finish, use an immersion blender or transfer a small amount to a frother and blend for 20–30 seconds to create a light foam on top.
Serve. Pour into two mugs and top with coconut whipped cream, a pinch of flaky salt, or shaved dark chocolate if desired. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegan Hot Chocolate — The Warmth You Carry Home After a Big Day