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