yitayningwut: no, I meant Tosafos Berachos 38a s.v. Hai. Beer is different than flavored water because the barley malt is cooked in the water and should be Mei Shlakos.
The chocolate drink the Shaarei Teshuva refers to is not hotcocoao, it is a syrup pressed from the bean. until Hershey developed the process for solidifying chocolate into a bar, this was the way the Aztecs and later the Europeans consumed cocoa forhundredss of years.
I would like to see Rav Abady’s Teshuva on the subject, is there a way you can post the text.