Chocolate melted in water or milk, scented with cinnamon, long beaten with a molinillo until a thick foam forms on top. Bitter, hot, comforting.

Why this dish? Hot chocolate was, along with coffee, Graffigny's favorite drink. A ritual beverage of Enlightenment salons, it was taken in the afternoon while reading and writing — exactly the daily theater of a letter-writer who covered pages of correspondence.

Here is my true weakness, I confess it without shame: my after-dinner chocolate. You melt the tablets in very hot water, you throw in a hint of cinnamon, and then you turn, you turn the molinillo between your palms until that beautiful brown foam rises. I take it while rereading my letters, and it keeps my mind awake to write until evening. Without it, I don't know if I would ever have finished my *Lettres d'une Péruvienne*.

How it was made : Imported from the New World after 1492, cacao in the 18th century was sold in tablets already sweetened and spiced. The *molinillo* (or moulinet), a small fluted stick rolled between the hands, was used to emulsify the drink in the spouted chocolate pot. Chocolate was drunk bitter and thick, far from our very sweet versions.

The contemporary twist : A pinch of fleur de sel and a cloud of barely sweetened whipped cream for the "letter-writer's chocolate."

Sources : Menon, La Cuisinière bourgeoise, 1746 · D. Diderot & J. d'Alembert, Encyclopédie, article "Chocolat"

Françoise de Graffigny · Charactorium