Imagine this:

​You are nine years old. You’ve just got home from the park down the street, shucked your winter clothes. Your body is warm, but your face is cold. The house is chilly, because your mother (for some godforsaken reason) likes it that way and won’t let you or anyone else turn the heating up.

This is a situation, you decide, that calls for hot chocolate. Maybe you should ask Mom or Dad for help—but no, you think, you’re a big girl. You can do this on your own. 

So you scurry into the kitchen. You know where the necessary accoutrements are: saucepan, measuring cup, measuring spoons, cocoa powder, milk, wooden spoon. You measure out about a cup of milk, and after some consideration, put in three tablespoons of cocoa powder. Three is a good number, and a cup is a lot of milk.

You pour the mixture into the saucepan and—struggling a little, because the saucepan is heavy—carry it over to the stove, setting it down on one of the front burners. Turning the heat up to medium, you pick up the wooden spoon and (with a little help from a trusty stepstool) start stirring your hot chocolate.

When little bubbles start appearing and the rich aroma of chocolate fills the air, you figure it’s done, and so you turn off the heat and get a mug for the hot chocolate. Finally, drink in hand, you pad over to the dinner table and sit down, prepared to enjoy your delicious drink.

Only as you take your first sip, you realize it is neither enjoyable nor delicious. In fact, it tastes rancid. It tastes like tar. It’s so bitter that you have to run to the sink and get a glass of water to wash out your mouth.

(Being nine, you didn’t think to add any sugar.)

INGREDIENTS
​1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
IMPLEMENTS
Saucepan
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Wooden spoon
STEPS
1. Pour a cup of milk into the measuring cup.
2. Using the measuring spoons, put three tablespoons of cocoa powder into the milk. Stir.
3. Transfer the mixture from the measuring cup into the saucepan. Put said saucepan onto the stove on medium heat. 
4. Use the wooden spoon to stir until you see small bubbles starting to appear. Then turn the heat off and transfer the mixture into a mug.
5. Drink your terrible bitter hot “chocolate” and weep.