I Tried the Most Famous Hot Cocoa Recipe — And It's as Good as Promised (2024)

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Overall rating: 7/10
Get the recipe: Ree Drummond’s Delicious Hot Chocolate

If you’re looking for a pantry-friendly recipe to make cocoa for a crowd, this is a good one to try. The no-frills ingredient list includes whole milk, half-and-half, semisweet chocolate chips, and vanilla — all things many households will have on hand. The recipe is well-written, instructing the reader to warm the milk and half-and-half on the stovetop over medium-low heat, then stir in the chocolate until melted, noting that there will still be particles of chocolate throughout.

The recipe serves six, which could be a bit much depending on your needs, although I did save leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. The hot cocoa itself is tasty, but basic. It’s not overly sweet (there is the option to add a teaspoon of sugar if you like your cocoa sweeter), which I prefer, and it has a balanced chocolatey flavor from the semisweet chips. Overall, this feels like what you would throw together if you wanted hot cocoa, but hadn’t planned your grocery run ahead of time.

Overall rating: 6/10
Get the recipe: Carla Hall’s Snow Day Cocoa

If you want more than your run-of-the-mill hot cocoa, this is the recipe for you. The ingredients include cinnamon, ginger, and orange, giving this cocoa a distinctly different flavor profile from the other recipes I tested.

While not the only recipe to call for whipped cream, it is the only one to include a recipe for it. That might feel like too much work for a single serving, but this could easily be doubled to serve two people. Carla’s whipped cream uses heavy cream, sugar, and ground ginger for an aromatic twist. The cocoa itself starts by briefly toasting ground cinnamon in a small saucepan before adding whole milk, dark chocolate, and sugar. The cocoa is garnished with the ginger whipped cream and a small piece of orange peel.

The final product was surprising and complex. Dark chocolate and orange are a classic combination, and the ginger whipped cream added another layer of depth. Unfortunately the texture was so thick I felt like I was trying to drink melted chocolate. Stirring the whipped cream into the mug loosened it a little, but I think I could have doubled the amount of milk here and still made delicious cocoa with a more drinkable consistency.

Overall rating: 5/10
Get the recipe: Ina Garten’s Hot Chocolate

This is a relatively straightforward take on hot cocoa that comes together quickly. Milk and half-and-half are heated on the stovetop, followed by stirring in chopped chocolate, sugar, vanilla, and espresso powder. The cocoa is garnished with your choice of vanilla beans or cinnamon sticks. This makes a big batch that serves four to five people.

The combination of both milk and half-and-half and two kinds of chocolate (milk and dark) gives the cocoa both body and a more complex flavor. The result is a cocoa with a recognizable classic flavor profile reminiscent of a higher-quality Swiss Miss.

That said, it was very sweet and a tad on the rich side. I can’t imagine adding a classic topping like whipped cream or marshmallows to something already this sugary. I was disappointed to not pick up on the flavor of espresso powder, seemingly overwhelmed by the chocolate. If you’re looking for a really sweet treat or a good cocoa recipe for a group of kids (perhaps minus the espresso powder), this is it.

Overall rating: 3/10
Get the recipe: Giada De Laurentiis’ Triple Chocolate Cocoa

When I read the ingredient list for this one, I had high hopes. This recipe incorporates chocolate hazelnut spread in addition to dark chocolate, and is the only one to include a pinch of salt. A little bit of salt with your sweet is terrific! This is also the only recipe to lead with non-dairy milk. The curveball for me was the cocoa nibs, which don’t melt and seemed like a possibly problematic texture-add. This recipe uses the blender in addition to the stovetop, putting it squarely in a higher-lift category than every other recipe I tested. Still, I was hopeful it would yield a good cocoa with some added depth of flavor.

Before heating the milk on the stovetop you add dark chocolate chips, chocolate hazelnut spread, cocoa nibs, and salt to a blender. Once the milk is warm, you carefully pour it over the ingredients in the blender and allow them to sit for 30 seconds. Then everything is blended until smooth. Unfortunately, despite blending for over 3 minutes (well over the 30 seconds the recipe called for), I could not get the mixture totally smooth. The cocoa nibs remained stubbornly “nibby” and resulted in a gritty cocoa.

While blending heated milk and a few other ingredients is not necessarily a lot of work, it was noticeably more (and created more dishes to clean) than every other recipe I tested. Grittiness aside, the flavor of the cocoa was a tad on the bitter side and while the use of almond milk is great for non-dairy folks, the cocoa itself had a distinctly thinner texture than other cocoas I tested.

Overall rating: 5/10
Get the recipe: Nigella Lawson’s Mystic Hot Chocolate

Nigella Lawson’s take on hot cocoa is startlingly simple. It starts with “1 mug” of whole milk — an imprecise but perfect measurement for this kind of recipe, allowing you to make as much or as little cocoa as you want. It is the only recipe that calls for heating the milk either on the stovetop or in the microwave, which saves you from dirtying a saucepan. It is also the only recipe I tested that calls for cocoa powder, rather than chocolate. To the heated milk you stir in cocoa powder, honey, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg.

The result is what I imagine you would get if a cup of tea became hot cocoa. While I don’t prefer my cocoa sickly sweet, 1 teaspoon of honey was not enough to make this taste balanced. I liked the flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon, and cocoa powder does make for a pleasingly chocolatey, if not deep, flavor. However, the use of just milk (rather than a combo of milk and half-and-half) resulted in a thin texture overall. I would try this again but skip the honey and just add a little sugar to achieve a more satisfying sweetness.

Overall rating: 10/10
Get the recipe: Jacques Torres’ Legendary Hot Chocolate

This cocoa blew all of the others out of the water. I was suspicious at first of the inclusion of milk powder and cornstarch in the ingredient list, wondering if they were really necessary or the kind of thing that sometimes gets added to a recipe to make it stand out from the crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the addition of these two ingredients to a simple mixture of milk and dark chocolate yielded the best cup of cocoa in the bunch.

The recipe is well written and clear, with instructions to bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to medium while whisking in the chocolate until it melts. The cornstarch and milk powder go in next while you continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth and thickened.

The flavor is uncomplicated, chocolatey, and balanced without being too sweet, with no need for added sugar. Where this one really shines is the texture. The cocoa is silky, thicker than milk alone, but not heavy. It feels indulgent, but not rich. This is what I wanted other cocoa recipes to be — classic, balanced, and smooth. I would be happy as a clam sipping a full mug by a fire, and I’m confident it could even take a few marshmallows or whipped cream without going over the edge into headache-sweet territory.