A lidded porcelain cup for drinking hot chocolate.Decorated with flower sprigs and gold swags around rim. When chocolate first came to Britain as an expensive, exotic, luxury product in the 1600s, the only way to taste it was by drinking it… as hot chocolate. Cacao beans were ground up and melted in hot water. Sugar, milk and spices were added, and the mixture frothed with a stirring stick called a molinet. At home, the fashion was to sip hot chocolate as an early morning or bedtime drink.
