It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Holiday lights are twinkling, the tinsel is hanging, and here in New York, it’s finally cold enough to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. Though making your own hot chocolate mix is very easy, there are days when we simply want a cup of hot chocolate that requires little more than whisking several tablespoons of perfectly calibrated mix into a mug or saucepan of steaming milk. Luckily for us, there are many store-bought hot chocolate mixes to choose from…if only we knew which to choose.
To find the very best hot chocolate mix, we tasted 19 different blends you’re likely to find online or at your local supermarket. We prepared each according to package directions using whole milk, then sampled them without knowing which hot chocolate was which. Our tests included hot chocolate that you have to measure yourself and simmer on the stovetop, as well as more straightforward blends that come individually portioned and can be prepared right in your mug. After each of our editors tasted their way through the 19 different cups of hot chocolate, we tabulated the results and crowned an overall winner we’d be happy to sip on the night before Christmas (or any other night), plus other worthy contenders.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
The Criteria
As is the case for many of the products we taste—like frozen pizza, yellow cake mix, or strawberry ice cream—the criteria for what makes great hot chocolate is deeply personal. Some people may prefer a lighter beverage made with a combination of cocoa powder and sugar, while others, like our editorial director Daniel, want to drink melted ganache. Though our editors all have different opinions on what the ideal cup of hot chocolate is, we all agree that a great hot chocolate mix should be rich, taste deeply of chocolate, and have good body without feeling greasy or gritty. It shouldn’t be excessively sweet, nor should it be overly bitter. A good hot chocolate mix doesn’t have to taste homemade, but it should be delicious enough that you’d happily make a cup—or a pot—for yourself or your family when the mood strikes.
Overall Winner
Angelina Hot Chocolate Mix
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
The French patisserie Angelina is renowned for its hot chocolate, and we were pleasantly surprised by how delicious their hot chocolate mix was. It is luxuriously thick and creamy, and of all the mixes we tasted, is most likely to pass for homemade—or even professionally made.
“Finally, one that tastes like chocolate,” our associate editorial director Megan wrote. “This is by far my favorite. Thick, but not like pudding. It’s definitely for dark chocolate lovers only.” Similarly, Daniel thought this hot chocolate was rich and chocolatey, with some intensity. Though our associate visuals director Amanda thought it was almost too thick—noting that she’d probably have a hard time drinking a whole mug of this—everyone else enjoyed this hot chocolate.
Made with cocoa powder, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, low-fat cocoa powder, and both whole and skimmed milk powder, Angelina’s hot chocolate is velvety smooth, just thick enough, and has plenty of bittersweet chocolate flavor.
Runners Up
The Best Hot Chocolate Mix for Dark Chocolate Lovers: Williams-Sonoma Double Dark Hot Chocolate
Williams-Sonoma’s double dark hot chocolate was slightly too bittersweet for Amanda, but other tasters thought it was nicely balanced and had good chocolate flavor. Though it wasn’t as concentrated as our winning pick, it still had nice body and was thick enough to coat a spoon. This was one of just three mixes with chocolate as the first ingredient; most of the other blends we tried had sugar as the first ingredient. If you enjoy dark or bittersweet chocolate, we recommend reaching for this one.
The Best Hot Chocolate Mix for Milk Chocolate Lovers: Valrhona Dark Hot Chocolate Mix
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
“This is like Swiss Miss with some guts,” Daniel wrote. “Sweet, user-friendly, but way more chocolate than the norm.” Valrhona’s blend is labeled “dark hot chocolate,” and though it has a dark brown hue that looks like dark chocolate, its sweet, milky flavor profile reminded our tasters more of milk chocolate than dark.
The Most Nostalgic Hot Chocolate Mix: Starbucks Hot Cocoa Classic
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Though this mix was slightly sweeter than Megan would have preferred, she thought it had a “rich and classic cocoa flavor.” Daniel thought it was “chocolatey, but in a mild way.” It’s not particularly thick, and has a slightly more bittersweet and complex-tasting hot chocolate than Swiss Miss. If you’re looking for something a little more nuanced than the basic supermarket stuff, this is your best bet.
The Contenders
- 365 Organic Hot Cocoa Rich Chocolate Flavor Mix
- Angelina Hot Chocolate Mix
- Cadbury Original Drinking Hot Chocolate
- Dandelion House Hot Chocolate
- Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa Mix
- Godiva Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa
- Jacques Torres Classic Hot Chocolate
- Lake Champlain Traditional Hot Chocolate
- Lindt Hot Chocolate
- Nestle Hot Cocoa Rich Milk Chocolate
- Raaka Classic Hot Chocolate
- Rovira Xocotassa Drinking Chocolate
- Starbucks Hot Cocoa Classic
- Stop and Shop Hot Cocoa Mix
- Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate
- Valrhona Dark Hot Chocolate Mix
- Williams-Sonoma Classic Hot Chocolate
- Williams-Sonoma Double Dark Hot Chocolate
- Zingerman’s Hot Cocoa Mix
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
In Conclusion
Going through the taste test results, it was very clear that most of our editors prefer thick, silky smooth bittersweet hot chocolate over sweet, milky hot chocolates. Many hot chocolate mixes contain anti-caking agents like silicon dioxide or synthetic sweeteners; our winning picks had neither, and contained fewer than six ingredients. All our top picks were a blend all or some of the following ingredients: sugar, chocolate, cocoa powder and/or butter, vanilla, and sunflower lecithin.
A comment multiple tasters made was that they would have enjoyed certain mixes more if they tasted more of chocolate, were sweeter, or thinner. Ultimately, the best way to prepare hot chocolate mix may be to ignore the recommended ratio on the package and use however much mix you think is necessary to achieve your ideal cup of hot chocolate.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
Our Testing Methodology
All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample 1 first, while taster B will taste sample 6 first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation possible.
