Mug Shots

The Hot Dominicana is an invention of the Double Seven, a meatpacking-district cocktail bar so obsessed with Debauve & Gallais chocolate — arguably the world’s finest (see Samurai Shopper) — that it is the only bar snack it serves. The drink is made by melting chocolate in hot milk, then mixing it with shots of Brugal rum (from the Dominican Republic) and Caffé Lolita coffee liqueur. The mixture is warmed with steam from a cappuccino machine and topped with heavy cream shaken to the consistency of French yogurt.

The sweetness of the rum and liqueur rounds out the bitterness of the dark chocolate. Sipping through a cool layer of cream only intensifies the experience. If an excursion to Debauve & Gallais’s Upper East Side boutique is too much of a detour, use any good-quality solid chocolate with at least 60 percent cocoa content. But make a point to stop by the Double Seven this winter for the real thing.

Adapted From the Double Seven, serves 4

2 cups milk

10 ounces Debauve & Gallais 60 percent cocoa chocolate disks (62 1/2 disks, to be precise)

3 ounces Brugal rum

3 ounces Caffé Lolita coffee liqueur

3/4 cup heavy cream.

1. Scald milk in a saucepan over a medium-low flame and pour into a saucepan containing chocolate. Stir with a whisk over medium-low heat until chocolate has melted.

2. Add rum and coffee liqueur to a metal cocktail shaker and heat quickly with the steam nozzle of a cappuccino machine. (Or scald rum and coffee liqueur in a saucepan over a medium-high flame.)

3. Stir hot liquors into hot-chocolate mixture, then divide among four glasses. Shake cream in a squeeze bottle vigorously for 45 seconds (or beat in a bowl with a whisk for the same length of time), and gently pour into glasses so it sits on top. Optional: garnish with chocolate shavings.