The Velvetiser. Please explain if a hot drink can ever be worth this kind of money??!

[Alwaysthebridesmaidpassmethewine]

Just that really.
£100 for a machine which I need to buy the hot chocolate for.
Is it really that special?
My eldests birthday in a couple of weeks who likes hot chocolate and is hard to buy for, but would it be money well spent?
Views please 🤞🏻

I love mine.
I got it for Christmas 2020 and it has been used twice a day pretty much every day since then.
It is simple to use, absolutely beautiful to pour from (the balance of the weighting is perfect), and easy to clean. No it can't go in a dishwasher, but takes only about 10 seconds to rinse.
It is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever had.

I got one as a gift.
Once I'd used the sachets I got with it I buy good quality bar chocolate and grate it ..or whizz in my mini whizzer thing...

I got one for christmas a couple years ago after buying some of their hot choc and just doing it in a pan on the hob.

I love it! We only use it once a week or a fortnight because it's so calorific but it feels like a lovely treat.

I don't buy teas or coffees or other drinks from coffee shops so realistically the occasional expensive hot choc in the home is not a big deal for us.

My parents will have one when they come visit which they consider a bit of a treat too.

To clean it I simply rinse and then add a drop of fairy, fill to the fill line and turn on while I'm drinking my choc.

I can't understand them. You can make an absolutely delicious hot chocolate with milk, cocoa powder, sugar and a microwave. It seems really unnecessary.

An Aldi frother makes lovely drinks with instant chocolate powder. Options made with milk fills a mug with thick chocolatey foam. Yum.

I bought my DD one for Christmas a couple of years or so ago and she loves it. It definitely tastes better than just a microwave hot choc.
To clean it, she just puts some water and washing up liquid in and turns it on! Quick rinse and it's good to go again.
It doesn't come out as piping hot as you can get it to in a microwave but that suits her fine because she lets it cool down anyway if she does it in the microwave.

DD loves ours. But she uses Galaxy instant chocolate unless she's feeling fancy, in which case she has some of her Christmas gifted hotel chocolat flakes.

I like how easy it is. No faffing with a saucepan on the stove and standing over it or putting jugs of milk in and out of the microwave. Just chuck it all in and leave it to do it's thing.
Woukd have been great to have one when the DC were younger-they could have made their own hot chocolate.

Yes this! The Aldi one has won high ratings in Germany and Switzerland and sold out. So if you can get one, grab the opportunity.

I bought my DD one as consolation when her yr 6 trip was cancelled due to covid (and it was on offer!) 2+ years later she uses it most days & cleans it herself - she gets the sachets as presents & occasionally I have to top them up. I always use it as an example of gadgets that seem like they might be a waste of money but are actually brilliant :-)

I got my adult Ds one for Christmas the other year and it is well used by all of us but we are a big milk drinking household.
I have taken it to work and even the sceptics are impressed.
I sometimes heat the mug whilst waiting for the hot chocolate so it stays hotter for longer.
If you do go to get one don't forget to sign up first and get it for £69.95

www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/about-vipme/

At the moment if you sign up for the vip club it's just under £70 and for chocolate, search Pendragon drinks

We got one for our the kids for Christmas, got it in October and it was discounted and came with mugs and selection of the chocolate. Anyway its been great. They love it, you can use it with powder hot chocolate and I froth milk in it for coffee. So it's been a good purchase

We got one for £70 (after signing up to the vip club) for ds birthday. We live it and put the frother and lid on the dishwasher. Outlet HC stores have the sachets cheaper but they might need to used, for eg, within two months which is fine as we have one each around twice a week. Like the idea though of using grated high quality chocolate from elsewhere to save money.

£60 on ebay: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325111781539?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=FqQA--VXQkK&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=xss7AK7xSrq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I absolutely love mine. And the temperature is perfect for me as I don’t like drinks too hot, but my mum likes to warm her cup with boiling water first and she says that makes a difference

the sachets are a bit spendy but they are so worth it

Pendragon drinks: pendragondrinks.co.uk/

Yup I warm my mug in parallel with the chocolate being done.
DD however prefers her mug not warmed.

I love the sachets of grated chocolate for the gadget (the ginger one is amazing) but I just make it in a saucepan and its deliciously silky and smooth. I can't see a point to the machine at all

Another vote for yes!

I was given one as a gift, along with two cups and a starter box of sachets. Would never have purchased for myself but we used it all the time, and took it camping as we have electric hook up; absolutely revolutionised camping! Also great at steaming milk. Negatives are that it only makes one cup at a time. But it is still faster than heating the same amount in a pan (we don’t have a microwave). It gave up the ghost after 18 months (water got into the element during over enthusiastic cleaning, there are also 8 people in our house so it got heavy use) and I really miss it. Hoping someone will buy it for my next birthday! As with others we use cadburys hot choc. I warm my mug with boiling water which makes the HC the right temp. The kids feel that it’s the perfect temp already.

if your dd likes hot choc I think it’s a lovely gift, she can also impress friends. Likely to be used and last a lot longer than most other gifts imo.

We mostly use ours to make lattes! An expresso coffee made in our bean to cup grinder, added to milk from the velvetiser.

We're fancy 😄

I don't buy any gadget that does a job I could do with a pan eg soup maker, rice cooker and velvitiser would definitely come under that. DS has made very chocolatey hot chocolate with a milk pan and a bar of chocolate.
A friend bought the Hotel Chocolate velvet velvetiser and although she has used it occasionally I'm don't think it's worth the cuboard/worktop space for the amount of use it gets.

With a saucepan you have to judge the heat yourself / pay attention to if it is boiling over.

The velvetiser is 100% consistent, and I can get on with other bits in the kitchen in the knowledge that it switches off when it gets to temperature. It is easier to clean than a saucepan too imo.

My youngest saved up and bought one for Christmas (using the VIP card referenced above, it was cheaper), and his three siblings mocked him mercilessly. However, they are now more than happy to drink the chocolate and it is used multiple times a day!

If you are a hot chocolate fan, then yes, I'd say it is worth it. Frothing milk isn't the same IMO.

No.