Home

Do you love Chocolate? Do you like a good Hot Chocolate? Do you like a nice Hot Chocolate at home, on a cold, wet, June afternoon? No that’s wrong, unless you’re in London that is, but whenever you enjoy a big cup of chocolatey goodness, there are a lot of choices out there, and some are not as good as others. So here is a rough guide to making Hot Chocolate at home.

Now there are two schools of Hot Chocolate: the Drinking Chocolate, which is boiling milk and adding Cocoa Powder or Drinking Chocolate Powder. 

There are numerous brands out there to try, Cadbury’s is of course one of the best known and is is Vegan if you add Soya or a milk alternative, but there are others, and some are stronger, richer, darker chocolate percentage or just quirky. 

But whether you buy Tesco’s own, Sainsbury’s, Asda’s, or Morrisons, they are all practically the same, the same packaging and the same powder, because Cadbury’s makes it for them, then just package the powder in a cardboard tin and stick a different coloured lid on top. The only difference with the original is that it has a higher cocoa percentage, thus making it more expensive and a stronger flavour.

So what alternatives are there?

Well, if you want really good, really rich chocolate, then Twining’s Swiss is well worth a try, it is yummy, but at twice the price of Cadbury’s, it’s more of a while indulgence drink.

If you are sat there thinking, well that’s not expensive, I want a real luxury Hot Chocolate then we would say go to Whittard’s Tea Shop and get their Chocolate Powder, at £7 it’s quite an indulgence and as with all the powders mentioned here, you don’t just add the 2 or 3 tea spoons to a cup, you really need that extra spoonful to get a truly rich taste and 4 spoons per serving quickly depletes the pot.

Other indulgent alternatives to try are Selfridges’ own Naive at £20 for this packet. This is truly indulgent and expensive, and honestly, having tried just a sample, it isn’t worth it.

What is worth it though is the Kokoa Collection at £7.99 for a pack of chocolate discs it is expensive but oh wow, what a taste, if you remember our reviews of the now deceased Chesterfield’s Coffee Shop in E3, you’ll remember our raving about their Hot Chocolate and how we would detour just to get one from them and this is why, this was their secret. There is a selection of Milk, white, Dark, and Darkest in the Collection.

 

Bournville’s version is cheaper than but just as strong in the dark chocolate vein, but again is quite bitter, and you’d need a few spoons of sugar to level out the taste, so if that’s your taste, then that is a good, cheaper alternative to the others mentioned.

Basically, there are tons and tons to try, but generally, by the rule is the higher the cocoa content, the better the taste, but the higher the percentage, the more bitter and sharper the flavour, so you need to find your balance.

And whether you are a traditionalist and boil the milk in a saucepan on a stove, or just stick it in the microwave and be done with it, the result will be the same, a good chocolatey drink and last of your milk gone, so you won’t have any for tea or coffee in the morning!

So…

The other school is Instant Hot Chocolate drinks, that is boil a kettle, put some chocolate powder in a cup, pour the water over it, and stir. Simple, right?

Well, no, this is where the problem starts in earnest. The instant versions tend to have milk powder in them, and this could cause problems for the lactose-intolerant, the Vegans, and other issues, but that’s not what this is about.

Over the years, we (Ash mainly) have tried lots of these instant Drinks, trying to find a favourite that isn’t going to mean buying 20 pints of milk a week! All these Instant drinks do need at least 5 spoons of powder in the cup, so it’s about a 1/3 powder to 2/3 water mixture, and not the 2 or 3 spoons as stated on the side of the packet in some cases.

For a while we were buying Sainsbury’s Basic’s Fair Trade, this was really cheap to start with, we are talking 90p for 500g, then it started to go up 10p a week, until it got to £1.70, the same price as their non basic own brand, then they change the packaging and increased the price more and filled the jars less than half way, so you thought you were getting more but were actually getting less than half the original – a con!

So we started a hunt for an alternative, Sainsbury’s own brand in the purple jar has NO FLAVOUR at all, it is the most bland drink I have ever tasted.

Tesco’s does a similar version, same jar, different lid, like with the Cadbury’s drink, but their version tastes of Coconut, like REEEEEALLY Coconutty! Morrisons’ own brand was thrown away after one try; it tasted of oil, and we haven’t tried Asda’s, but going by the others, we suspect it can’t be good (given that they are clearly all made by the same company). So we tried the next level up in our own brands and found them dull, flavourless, or just odd.

The Clipper Teas version is ok but you need about eight spoonfuls in a cup to get a real flavour. It is advertised as smooth and velvety, which means mild and watery.

The low-calorie versions do tend to be tasteless again, and the smaller amounts in the pot, you need at least double the spoonfuls to get a flavour, which is counterproductive.

So on to the named chocolates, i.e., Galaxy, Aero, and others, these have more cocoa in the powder compared to the Supermarket versions, even compared to Cadbury’s best-known blue pot.

These are delicious. Ash’s personal favourite is the Galaxy; the Maltesers are a good alternative to regular Hot Chocolate with that Malt taste, it’s like a cross between Horlicks (the Malty Hot Drink).

This is by no means a complete list; it is only the list of those I have tried, and so I cannot say that of the hundreds of varieties out there, these are the best, and there are literally hundreds of companies making variations. Just Google search Hot Chocolate, and you’ll see just how many there are.

But for now here are our recommendations and our preferences, We hope this is helpful and one last point, if you really need a great cup of Chocolate and find yourself in Soho, London, you have to try out Said 1924 for the ultimate indulgent chocolate experience, we would just recommend you go for a small cup, the big cup is just too much (taste and money!)

---

Well, there you go. If you aren’t in a Chocolate Coma after that, remember to subscribe to get posts directly to your email each week, check out our Social Media, and come back each week for more.

But with that said, Climbing Moss will be away for the next few weeks. When we return, we will have lots of new stuff to tell you about. So until then,

Byeeeeeee!