The Serious Eats Hot Chocolate Taste Test
The holiday season is hot cocoa/hot chocolate season no matter where you live, so as a public service the Serious Eaters have endeavored to taste every hot cocoa and hot chocolate we could find at a reasonable price. That means we set a price ceiling of 75¢ a serving. That means delicious fancy-pants hot chocolate mixes like Jacques Torres and MarieBelle's are not included in this tasting. They do contain chocolate, they are delicious, but they're just too pricey. The Land O' Lakes Supreme Hot Chocolate, which was pretty good, is also too expensive for our survey, at 99¢ a serving.
The Ground Rules
Before we begin, we must define our terms. Hot cocoa is made with cocoa powder, a by-product of the chocolate-making process. What that means is that almost all hot cocoa/hot chocolate varieties we found in our price range contained no chocolate. Even some brands that called themselves hot chocolate, like Lake Champlain Chocolates' Traditional Hot Chocolate, are actually mislabeled because they contain no chocolate.
How did we judge what we sampled? Hot cocoas/hot chocolates not containing chocolate are not going to taste particularly chocolatey, so we couldn't judge brands like Swiss Miss using that criterion. So we asked ourselves how smooth and rich and tasty each hot cocoa/chocolate was. Some preparations called for water, others for milk. We followed the instructions on the package. Sometimes the instructions said you could use milk or water, and in those cases we did both. We looked for the equivalent of the dark chocolate flavor in each kind because we were hoping to find the most chocolate-rich flavor we could.
The five mentioned below will all be good for what ails you on a winter's day, but only one, Dagoba, will make it into the Hot Chocolate Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
Swiss Miss Rich Chocolate
This was the cheapest brand we tried. It had no discernible chocolate flavor, but everybody was satisfied with its sweet, smooth taste and rich texture. If it's hot cocoa on a budget you're after Swiss Miss will do you up right. $2.59 for 10 servings
Lake Champlain Chocolates' All Natural Traditional Hot Chocolate
Made with milk, Lake Champlain's product was surprisingly thin but pretty satisfying. We got the best results with Lake Champlain when we doubled the amount of powder the instructions called for. Doing that, the 16-ounce package, which supposedly makes 21 servings, only makes about ten. $8 for 21 servings
Dagoba Organic Hot Chocolate Authentic Hot Chocolate
Dagoba was the priciest brand we tried at 72¢ a serving, but it was far and away the richest, most chocolatey, most satisfying cup we found. It tasted very chocolatey, was plenty rich, and was just sweet enough. $8.80 for 12 servings
Stephen's Gourmet Hot Cocoa Belgian Dark Chocolate
It may call itself dark chocolate, but Stephen's had no chocolate and therefore no discernible chocolate flavor. Stephen's tasted like a slightly better Swiss Miss, sort of like a Swiss Miss on steroids.
$4.99 for 13 servings
Green & Black's Organic Hot Chocolate Drink
Although this contained dark chocolate, it was surprisingly watery. When we doubled the amount of powder called for in the instructions (which drove the per serving price over a dollar), the results were markedly improved. $4.99 for 8 servings
So there you have it, six hot cocoas/chocolates to tide you over this holiday season.
View other entries from Serious Chocolate.
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20 Comments:
What happened to heating up milk and adding chocolate syrup? Granted most commercial chocolate syrup has hardly if any real chocolate. If you can get Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup, that's the most chocolatey. Or Hershey's or Bosco. (Do they even still sell Bosco?)
Anyway if this is for kids, what kid is going to know the difference?
Oh yeah, when we were kids we always made a mess with the syrup so my mom only bought Nestles Quik. (Nesquik), except on Passover which is another story altogether.....
RichardCrystal at 9:05AM on 12/19/07
Ciobar from Cameo in Italy is the king of hot chocolate mixes!!
jasonmolinari at 9:34AM on 12/19/07
Sorry but I can't drink a premix hot chocolate. I'm totally spoiled by the stuff that I make. It only takes about 3 minutes to whip up and knocks the socks of that junk in a packet. Mine is of the Mayan variety with cinnamon and cayenne. Yeah!
Bunnyman at 10:32AM on 12/19/07
I agree completely, Bunnyman. I can't drink hot chocolate mixes anymore.
Marilyn at 10:44AM on 12/19/07
I just add Ghiradelli to steamed soy milk. It works for me!
KarynMC at 10:45AM on 12/19/07
The Swiss Miss "Dark Chocolate Sensation" has a markedly better flavour than their standard varieties. I think that it is new this year because I don't recall seeing it on shelves in the past.
Sure, it's not as good as melting real chocolate into hot milk, but for $2/box it's more than adequate when you need a quick fix.
rheogs at 11:23AM on 12/19/07
warm CHOCOMEL from holland takes all prizes I'm giving out.
alktraz at 11:25AM on 12/19/07
ABUELITA! (yeah, it's the sad Nestle version of Mexican hot chocolate, but it's chocolate and it's awesome)
ansate at 11:55AM on 12/19/07
Oh, but the Land O' Lakes chocolate graham cocoa is the best powder-mix cocoa I've ever had in my entire life. I had it over Thanksgiving and had to set a limit of one per day else I would have been downing it like it was my job.
Stufsocker at 1:14PM on 12/19/07
The only type pf hot chocolate for me is homeade. One part sugar, one part cocoa, and lots of hot milk.
Lilartist at 1:19PM on 12/19/07
U-Bet and hot milk. It's much better than those inexpensive hot cocoa mixes and just as easy. Just add syrup to milk, nuke, drink. If you want to get fancy, top with marshmallow. Perfect.
chisai at 2:19PM on 12/19/07
They are all too sugary for me, even Ciobar, which is actually thin pudding. I use Valrhona cocoa 2 heaped tablespoons, sugar 1 tablespoon, milk. That's it folks.
For the REAL thing, go to my friend's website www.divinacucina.com and she has the recipe from a Florentine spot that is so full of fats and chocolates that you will die -- happily, but dead is dead, right? I believe it is from Vivoli.
Judith in Umbria at 2:23PM on 12/19/07
None of the above. Valrhona for me, thanks to Dorie Greenspan and her World Peace cookies.
Eliz. at 2:50PM on 12/19/07
P.S. Judith, no, you're thinking of Rivoire and it's thick, syrupy hot chocolate which is fabulous, but it's not hot cocoa. It's made like all good Mexican and European hot chocolate: with blocks of chocolate as opposed to cocoa powder.
Eliz. at 2:52PM on 12/19/07
PPS: Oops, Cross out "None of the above" in my first response. J in U said V first.
Eliz. at 2:54PM on 12/19/07
PPPS and make that "its thick, syrupy hot chocolate". Sigh. Wish we could edit.
Eliz. at 2:55PM on 12/19/07
I can't drink the mixes either. Besides being sorely lacking in cocoa flavor, they're usually too sweet, too watery (even if made with milk for some odd reason), and don't really save much time/effort IMHO.
I make either cocoa or chocolate myself, from scratch. It's so easy and SO much more satisfying. I go easy on the sugar, and ALWAYS add a pinch of salt.
LoCo at 3:41PM on 12/19/07
E. Guittard 61% Semisweet Chocolate Wafers...16oz for $8.99 (.56 for 1oz)
Farmland Whole Milk... 1/2 gallon $2.19/ea (.21 for 6oz)
Over medium-low heat, melt 1 oz chocolate wafers into 6oz milk in a small saucepan, whisking until incorporated.
Total cost for a 6oz mug of deliciousness = .77 cents. I think real chocolate is worth the extra 2 cents.
missginsu at 3:49PM on 12/19/07
Vosges or Christopher Elbow. Drink better, drink less.
ExpatChef at 5:07PM on 12/19/07
There's a new one from Korean producer Damtuh (www.damtuh.com) called "Dark Cacao 30%," which is a semi-sweet mix. Not bad.
Talked about it here:
http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal/?p=348
ZenKimchi at 11:11PM on 12/21/07