Taste Test Four Different Hot Chocolates

I’m doing the taste test on four different hot chocolates that I keep in the house. I’m Making them exactly according to the instructions on the tin.

Here’s my review!

CASTLE KITCHEN CLASSIC CARAMEL DARK CHOCOLATE

Taste Test Four Different Hot Chocolates

I bought the Castle Kitchen Classic Caramel Dark Chocolate on Amazon.

The tin says it’s a dairy free, gluten free, plant based, vegan drink mix. It’s also verified non-GMO.

For me, the taste was more important than any of those attributes!

The instructions are 6 ounces water plus two tablespoons chocolate mix.

For a dark hot chocolate mix, it’s very nice. A rich, creamy, chocolately taste.

What’s missing?

The caramel taste!

I don’t know. Is classic caramel tasteless?

The hot chocolate smells lovely, and I do detect a bit of caramel in the sniff test. But, the caramel is very subtle to unnoticeable in the hot chocolate.

That being said, I do get the overall impression that this is a high quality, premium hot chocolate mix. It tastes similar to what you’d expect in a hot chocolate from Starbucks.

Right now it’s not even available at Amazon, unless you’re in Canada, where Amazon Canada has it available. Lucky us!

110 calories.

CASTLE KITCHEN MARVELOUS MINT DARK CHOCOLATE

I used to buy the Tim Hortons mint hot chocolate, but they seem to have discontinued it.

Boo!

Damn! It was soooo good!

Then I spotted Castle Kitchen Marvelous Mint Dark Chocolate on Amazon. How cute with the green lettering on the tin to promote the mint = green. Catchy!

Right from opening the tin, there’s a nice mint aroma. Same as with the caramel, the mint also calls for two tablespoons of hot chocolate powder added to six ounces of hot water. I tend to go with a higher water ratio when I’m normally making this Marvelous Mint Dark Chocolate and it’s still just as good, even “watered down” ha ha!

Also, just like the Caramel, the Marvelous Mint is currently unavailable on Amazon.com. But lucky us in Canada, it’s on Amazon.ca! At $8.29 (Canadian dollars), it’s a little pricey, but it’s a nice occasional splurge.

I’m kicking myself while I’m writing this. I just placed an Amazon order today and forgot to add Marvelous Mint to the shopping cart!

110 calories.

TIM HORTONS HOT CHOCOLATE

For those who aren’t familiar with the Tim Hortons donut and coffee shop chain, there is no apostrophe in Hortons! It seems like there should be, but nope! Not a typo. At least not on my end.

The instructions on the tin say 3 tablespoons hot chocolate mix and one cup hot water.

Even though it’s not a gourmet dark chocolate mix, and no milk is added, this Tim Hortons hot chocolate mix is surprisingly creamy.

Don’t let the photo on the tin throw you off. There are no little marshmallows in the Tim Hortons hot chocolate mix.

Rich, creamy, chocolately. What else do we need in a hot chocolate mix?

Where can you buy it? Not surprisingly, every Tim Hortons restaurant sells it. The hot chocolate mix can be purchased at just about every grocery store and drug store in Canada. If you’re in the states, keep an eye on Amazon, or get yourself to one of the Tim Hortons located in the Eastern states. There are 653 Tim Hortons in America, and 242 locations are in New York, as of February, 2021.

Taste Test Four Different Hot Chocolates

Cold winter days and everyone wants to drink hot chocolate! Especially when it’s snowing!

190 calories.

NESTLE NESQUICK REDUCED CALORIE HOT CHOCOLATE

This is my reduced calorie hot chocolate, and I’ve featured it on another post – Creamy Low Calorie Hot Chocolate Hack.

The directions on Nestle Nesquick are very specific – add two tablespoons of the powder mix into one cup of either hot or cold milk. So even though that’s how I normally fix it, I switched it up for this blog post experiment. Instead of hot milk, I added the powder to hot water.

Have you ever bought hot chocolate from a vending machine at the bus station or in a hallway at the hospital?

That’s exactly how Nesquick hot chocolate tastes made with water!

I added a couple of globs of Cool Whip to it and that made it taste better. This is definitely one hot chocolate drink mix that you want to follow the instructions on and make it with milk!

Creamy Low Calorie Hot Chocolate Hack

I normally keep cashew milk in the house which is creamy, and low in calories at 25 calories per cup. Once this Nestle Nesquick mix is added to the cashew milk, it becomes a tasty, creamy hot chocolate! Nice! Extravagant when you’re watching your calories.

60 calories if made with water. Less than 100 calories if made with cashew milk.

THE WINNER?

Aw man, rating them is the hard part! When my little heart is set on a hot chocolate, so many things are part of deciding which one of these hot chocolate cans will be pulled off the shelf and put into active duty.

First off, I’m going to say that none of these hot chocolates rates 10 out of 10.

Sad, isn’t it? However, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a really bad hot chocolate.

I’ve had some pretty good hot chocolates over the years, ordered from restaurants, and I would say I’ve had a few nines. I think the only 10 I’ve ever had was at a long forgotten restaurant in England. The hot chocolate was served with a Cadbury’s Flake bar. Yum!

One time I even had a pretty good hot chocolate at a gas station in southern Washington. It was a Mexican hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to find that random gas station again!

I look forward to returning to Spain one day. The hot chocolate there is as thick as chocolate pudding and served with churros. Excellent!

So let’s get to the scoring!

Nestle Nesquick made with water – 5.

Nestle Nesquick made properly with milk – 7.

Castle Kitchen Classic Dark Chocolate Caramel – 7.

Tim Hortons Hot Chocolate – 8.

Castle Kitchen Marvelous Mint Dark Chocolate – 9.

RECOMMENDATIONS?

Do you know about a really good hot chocolate mix you’d like to share?

Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on March 25, 2021.

MORE READING:

Creamy Low Calorie Hot Chocolate Hack
Dunking, Spanish Style

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