The Best Hot Chocolate Mixes

The holiday season is hot chocolate season no matter where you live, so the Serious Eaters and I have endeavored to taste every hot cocoa and hot chocolate we could find at under 75¢ a serving.

How did we judge what we sampled? Hot cocoa is made with cocoa powder, a by-product of the chocolate-making process, which means that almost all hot cocoa/hot chocolate varieties we found in our price range contained no chocolate. Mixes not containing chocolate are not going to taste particularly chocolatey, so we couldn't use 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. Some instructions said you could use milk or water, and in those cases we did both.


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

Despite being called hot chocolate, Lake Champlain's product contains no actual chocolate. Made with milk, it 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 contained 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. And if you'd like to give the gift of hot chocolate, there's a list of great accessories and edibles on Serious Eats.