Hot chocolate season is upon us. It’s the perfect time of year to sit in front of a fireplace wearing a cozy knit sweater, sipping from a mug of hot cocoa. But what brands of store-bought hot cocoa are worth your cold hard cash?
We visited prominent, national supermarket chains and picked up some of the most popular hot cocoas, and then enlisted a tasting panel full of people who know a thing or two about sugary treats: employees at Hammond’s, a 99-year-old Denver candy manufacturer.
We know there are tons of flavored hot cocoas out there, but we wanted to find the best no-nonsense classic variety. So the employees blindly taste-tested six cups of plain hot cocoa mixed into hot water, and then assigned each one a score. (We know you can opt to mix your hot cocoa with milk ― which is usually a better option ― but we wanted to give the formulas a true test by mixing them with unadulterated water.)
Let’s see which hot cocoa mix the tasters liked! And stay tuned for the end, when we highlight two bonus flavored chocolate drinks the crew enjoyed.
Bonus: Two Worthy Flavored Hot Cocoa And Chocolate Drinks
After tasting round after round of plain hot cocoa, we gave the Hammond’s folks’ taste buds something to get excited about by having them weigh in on one unique, flavored cocoa and one popular hot chocolate. They weren’t included in the main ranking because that’d be comparing apples to oranges, but were worth mentioning nonetheless.
Nestlé Abuelita Mexican Style Instant Hot Chocolate Mix
“I like this one a lot!” “There’s cinnamon in here!” “It’s rich and creamy, and I love the cinnamon.” “It reminds me of cinnamon gum! Big Red, that’s what it is!” “I like it, but I can’t drink a lot of it.”
Main ingredients: sugar, nonfat milk, dairy product solids, vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel and hydrogenated soybean), corn syrup solids, cocoa
Trader Joe’s Peppermint Hot Chocolate
“It’s so minty, I can smell it from here!” “It almost reminds me of mouthwash!” “I think it’s too strong.” “I think it’s a wintergreen.” “The mint’s not overwhelming.” “It feels like your mouth is clean afterwards.”
Main ingredients: Bittersweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, natural vanilla flavor, soy lecithin [emulsifier]), cane sugar, coconut oil, non fat milk powder, cocoa, maltodextrin (corn), natural mint flavor
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