Disneyland Hot Chocolate

I was in LA for a bit recently, and of course spent a day in Disneyland. While there, I bought a cup of hot chocolate at the "Bengal BBQ," and was in for a pleasant surprise.

Disneyland Hot Chocolate


Maybe I was underestimating Disneyland by assuming this would be perfectly average hot chocolate. It was, in fact, delicious. It was so good that later that day I was fighting off the urge to go back for a second cup, and these are not small cups. It comes in only one size, which I'd estimate at 16 oz, so the size of a "grande" at Starbucks. For so much hot chocolate, it was pretty cheap - $2.79.

As cute as the cup is, the hot chocolate itself came with no whipped cream or marshmallows or anything of the sort. The cup was styrofoam, so it didn't get too hot, though the drink wasn't painfully hot to begin with.

I'd have to say, this may be the best hot chocolate I've ever bought. Fitting for coming from "the happiest place on Earth" - but sort of disappointing, since that's not somewhere I can visit regularly, so this hot chocolate is going to have to be a special treat whenever I'm in the neighborhood.

Ratings
Taste: 5
Value: 4
Presentation: 3
Convenience: 4

Instant Hot Chocolate: Ghirardelli and Safeway

On winter nights (or, in Seattle's case, summer nights that feel like winter nights) there's nothing better than a mug of hot chocolate! To save you from the horrors of curling up with a mediocre cup of hot chocolate, I'll review two brands of instant hot chocolate.

Note that for the sake of these reviews, both drinks were prepared as directed by the instructions on the boxes. I also won't be rating presentation, as that of course depends on the person making the hot chocolate. We can't assume everyone's will be as beautiful as mine!

I'll also be introducing a new criteria - "convenience". Yes, this is already a criteria for "to-go" drinks, but in the case of instant cocoas it will have a different meaning: If a recipe just calls for some hot water, that's about as simple as it can get - but if it starts calling for you to steam some milk and add vanilla, then it will start losing points in the convenience category.

Ghirardelli Ground Chocolate

Ghirardelli makes cocoa powder specifically intended for hot chocolate, and this isn't it. This is just "ground chocolate," but there's still a recipe on the back for hot chocolate - 4 tbsp added to a cup of hot milk.

I found it perfectly tasty - it wasn't thin or weak like a lot of other cocoa mixes. I can't say whether this has more to do with the recipe calling for milk instead of water or a generous amount of powder than with the powder itself, but the fact is that with the recipe followed precisely, this is some good hot chocolate. I'm eager to trying their actual hot chocolate cocoa, to see if it tastes any better.

The canister costs about $6, and has enough powder to make 12 cups of hot chocolate. That's about $0.50 a cup. If milk isn't a regular staple in your house, you could take into account that you're also paying a bit more to buy milk, as opposed to instant cocoas made with water.

Ratings
Taste: 4
Value: 3.5
Convenience: 4


Safeway "Rich Chocolate" Hot Cocoa Mix


I honestly couldn't find a better picture of this box anywhere online. Anyway, the directions for this hot chocolate are to mix one packet with boiling water, which is exactly how it tastes: like chocolate-flavored water. It's weak and watery.

As far as packets of hot chocolate go, I'm always disappointed when they don't contain marshmallows - but some research shows that there is a version of this that contains marshmallows, and it doesn't cost any extra, so I won't count that against them.

You could say here that you get what you pay for - a box of this costs only $2.19 and contains 10 servings, so about $0.22 a cup. However, if I ever drank this again I would go off the given recipe to either make it with milk instead of water, or use two packets in one cup of water to try and give it more flavor. So for me personally, it'd be $0.44 a cup, and only 5 servings in the box.

Ratings
Taste: 2
Value: 5
Convenience: 5

Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts Hot Chocolate, White Hot Chocolate, & Dunkaccino



These three items on the Dunkin Donuts menu have the same price and same cups, so for convenience's sake, I'll lump them together into one ridiculously long review.

Living in Seattle for part of the year and New York for the rest, my own experience (and a quick search on Google Maps) tells me that Dunkin Donuts is pretty much an East Coast thing, which is pretty strange considering how many there are on the East Coast. At least on Manhattan, you can't walk more than a couple blocks without passing by one - they could easily extend this sort of influence further across the country, yet here in Seattle I'd have to drive for hours to find one. Anyway, the review.

The first time I tried Dunkin Donuts hot chocolate, I did not have high expectations. It was a little over a dollar for the small size, and coming from the land of Starbucks where $2 got you a cup of hot water with a tea bag, that didn't bode well. But I was pleasantly surprised when, half an hour later, my hot chocolate was cool enough to drink. It tasted like chocolate cake to me, very rich and sweet.

Later, I tried it again, expecting the very rich, chocolatey taste I remembered - and it tasted kind of weak. So maybe it's a matter of expectations. Go in there expecting nothing, and it's delicious. Go in there expecting the best drink you've ever had, and it's disappointing. Go in there multiple times a week because it's across the street and the closest place to get breakfast before class, and eventually your expectations align. And it still tastes good.

There's also white hot chocolate. I love white chocolate, and white chocolate drinks, so this was pretty exciting to me - however, I'm not as much of a fan as I thought I'd be. It tastes bland and flavorless compared to the regular hot chocolate.

Third, the Dunkaccino - some sort of combination of their hot chocolate and coffee flavors. It's got a sort of thick, rich taste that feels like it coats your mouth (anyone who's has a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks, I believe they have a similar feeling), and it's sweet in a rich kind of way. It really has more richness than either of the hot chocolates, and tastes very much like caramel. Growing up on Starbucks mochas with crazy numbers of shots and flavors, I appreciate all that flavor for so little money.

Now let me discuss the cups, since I'm full of opinions on those. The small ones have a wide, tear-away tab that you can, theoretically, fold back to open, or put back into place to close.


Pictured is a rare functional lid on a cup of the white hot chocolate. I'd say the likelyhood of getting a lid that will actually stay in place when folded back is a bit less than 50%. Getting a lid that will close again is much, much less likely. I've had maybe two lids that successfully closed again, ever. Of course, it's a bit of a luxury for a disposable lid to re-close in the first place, but knowing that it could close back up but just won't is a little painful. Not to mention it gets cold faster, but it also starts out too hot to drink so maybe that's not such a bad thing. Oh, on that note - the small cups are made of cardboard, and don't come with sleeves, so I usually have to ask for a double-cup to keep from burning my hands.

The medium-size (and I assume large, I've never gotten one) lids are completely different:


This time, there's a separate piece. Attached in the middle, it's a flap that you can fold forward to plug up the hole, or fold backwards to keep it out of the way. These lids rarely fail, and the medium-and-larger cups are made of styrofoam instead of cardboard, so the cup isn't too hot to hold. For those two reasons, I usually pay the extra bit of money and get the medium size.

Oh, and on the subject of presentation... there's not much to say. I've never been offered whipped cream or anything of the sort, so I'll assume that there isn't any. I won't discount the possibility that there's a can back there reserved for those who ask, but after months of frequent visits to several different franchises and never a single mention, I can at least guarantee you won't get anything if you don't ask.

Ratings
Dunkin Donuts Hot Chocolate
Taste: 3.5
Value: 5
Presentation: 2
Convenience: 4.5

Dunkin Donuts White Hot Chocolate
Taste: 2.5
Value: 5
Presentation: 2
Convenience: 4.5

Dunkin Donuts Dunkaccino
Taste: 4
Value: 5
Presentation: 2
Convenience: 4.5