There is something about hot chocolate and Christmas, we suddenly become addicted to them! There seems to be more competition than ever this year every coffee chain has really gone to town with their Christmas flavoured drinks introducing indulgent speciality drinks that will be enough to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth. Here are just a few flavours that are on offer; salted caramel, holiday spiced, Honeycomb, peppermint mocha, Lindt hot chocolate, caramel fudge, black forest, White Chocolate, Honey and almond, spiced orange and the list goes on. We are currently working our way through the menu and a firm favourite so far is the honeycomb hot chocolate.
We love how all the coffee shops have got involved with the Christmas cups this year even McDonald’s have introduced a McCafe Christmas cup! We especially love the Costa cups they are for sure the winner in our eyes, but then again anything with a penguin on makes us excited. We love how Starbucks got their customers involved in the creation of their famous red cups, it shows they really do have the customer at the heart of all their decisions. We also couldn’t help but notice Starbucks was one of the last to reveal their 2016 Christmas cup which left us wondering if this was done on purpose to build suspense and get conversations flowing.
Hot chocolate is a great way to kick a chocolate craving! Whenever we are really craving some chocolate (usually every day at about 3pm) we always reach out for a healthy alternative hot chocolate. We are not sure if it is boredom and we suddenly are not hungry anymore because we have mistaken our hunger for thirst or if it really does work.
When we want to treat ourselves to a deliciously sugary hot chocolate we go ALL OUT! (You better be ready to see our delicious recipes below).
Choc Chick blissful blends cacao mandarin– This hot chocolate is one of our healthy alternatives. it is made from raw cacao powder which is then blended with natural mandarin. It is also free from dairy, sugar, gluten and guilt ;). 2 tsp should be mixed with hot water and add some milk if you fancy it!
Cadbury’s highlights Milk Chocolate- we absolutely love this hot chocolate and it is incredibly easy to make. The instructions suggest just adding hot water, but we have noticed the hot chocolate and hot water tend to separate and it can turn a bit lumpy. We add a small amount of milk to the hot chocolate powder and give this a stir until it forms a chocolate paste, then we simply add hot water and there you have it! You can also get the Cadburys highlights in other flavours such as fudge which also tastes delicious!
Cadburys Drinking Chocolate- This hot chocolate has is supposed to be enjoyed with milk. You can purchase the chocolate in a tin or sachet for on the go. This hot chocolate is deliciously smooth and chocolaty! We would suggest boiling some milk on a hob with the chocolate powder until it is piping hot and ready to drink.
Terrys chocolate orange hot chocolate- We are obsessed with terry chocolate orange so we couldn’t do a hot chocolate post and not include our own home made chocolate drink! If you are not a fan of chocolate orange then you can swap this for a chocolate bar of your choice!
Hot Chocolate Ingredients
1 Terry’s chocolate orange (they are usually on offer this time of year
2 mugs of milk (milk of your choice)
Method
Fill both of your mugs with a milk of your choice and place in a sauce pan
Put the milk on a medium heat to ensure you don’t burn the milk at the bottom
When the milk is heated through you will need to add the chocolate orange segments
Stir the mixture until the chocolate has completely melted
Take the saucepan off the heat and pour into your mugs
Snowmen Ingredients
Marshmallows (you can purchase Marshmallows from Muscle food if you are trying to be slightly healthier)
Pretzel sticks
icing pens for the face
You will also need a cocktail stick to assemble the snowman.
