To use Hot Chocolate as my main drink instead of coffee?

[DayInTheLifeOfaMum]

For background I don’t like coffee, I can’t stand the taste of it unfortunately, I wish I liked coffee but I just don’t. Since being a mum I’ve ended up drinking Hot Chocolate in the same way that some people drink Coffee, multiple times a day, at both home and work. I feel like my hot chocolates make me more awake and more alert in the same way that coffee does that for some people, I just can’t stand the taste of coffee though. DH reckons I should stop drinking hot chocolate like this, but he drinks multiple coffees a day which is not much different as I’m using hot chocolate to feel more alert and more awake which is the same thing that he uses coffees for! AIBU to use hot chocolates as my main drink instead of coffees?

Hot chocolate continues a lot of fat and sugar. Maybe one a day is ok, but drinking it all day would not be good for you.

Coffee has known health benefits as long as you don't drink too many cups. I'm a black coffee with no sugar weirdo! Apparently a sign of a psychopath...!

What about tea? Herbal tea? Hot squash?

It depends on your definition of "hot chocolate", I suppose. If you're using just hot water and raw cacao powder or cocoa, then you can probably have 3 or 4 of those a day with no problem.

I would advise against using any kind of UPF hot chocolate powder that contains multiple ingredients and loads of sugars, artificial sweeteners, palm oil, mono and diglycerides etc.

Possibly a high quality hot chocolate might be OK, but even then I don't think it's wise to have them multiple times every day.

Fruit tea?

Well, how many calories do they contain?

It’s more like having a chocolate bar every few hours throughout the day really. Bad for your teeth, sugar/fat intake and puts you in a roller coaster of sugar crashes throughout the day!

Make sure you are seeing a dentist regularly!

If you want to get diabetes, go ahead.

Coffee is actually good for you, especially black coffee.

Have you tried chocolate rooibos tea? I'm not a big tea drinker but it's nice.

I think that unless you are an endurance athlete that's a crazy amount of empty calories to drink daily

Not if OP uses high quality cocoa powder.

Edited - overlooked her comment on this.

OP I'd mix it up a bit. What is it specifically you dislike about coffee? I do as well,.and I have a hard time handling the acidity, especially in filter coffee. I do fine with espresso and other dark roasts, even if they border on bitter. So I'll do that occasionally, especially if it isn't on an empty stomach. I'd also explore if there aren't some leaf teas that could grow on you, or maybe even a nice tissue like verveine or a fresh chamomile tea made from the actual flowers rather than tea bags.

I do!

It's different because a hot chocolate is full of fat and sugar and coffee/tea usually isn't. If you just want a pick me up can you try milky tea? You could put stevia in it as a healthy sweetener. But it would be really unhealthy to drink multiple hot chocolates every day.

ETA just realised the irony of my username 😂

Of course you're not being unreasonable. I'd drink hot chocolate but I'm diabetic. I have it the odd time.

I don't drink coffee either but love a sugar free red bull everyday. People that drink multiple coffees a day tell me it's bad for me but I really don't care

What he thinks about 'using it' & how it makes YOU feel is irrelevant.

However, that's a shit load of sugar, whatever your weight, that much sugar is very bad for you.

im struggling to find another hot drink I like (I only like latte, not black coffee, have gone off tea, fruit tea gives me a headache, hot chocolate/ovaltine etc is too high in sugar. I'll have sugar free ribenna etc, but find it too 'sweet' for more than occasionally, vegetarian so don't drink boveril etc so I know how hard it is! but the search continues. (Tried many varieties of tea, all the jasmine, liquorice, green, herbal options (even had an advent calendar last year!).

tell DH to STFU, mind his own business but do look at the amount of sugar you're drinking!!

Hot chocolate is alright, but I couldn't replace coffee with it 🤢
Not a fan of sweet stuff, but everyone to their own.
YABU 😉

I've just had a look and a Costa hot chocolate has 525 calories. A Mars bar has got 229.

Each of those Hot chocolates are the equivalent of a couple of Mars bars and probably have as much sugar and fat, so no wonder they perk you up.

If that's what you want to consume every day, then it's your choice, but there's probably a better one.

How many hot chocolates a day do you drink?

Costa hot chocolate is 400+cals
Knock back four a day and there is little room for eating.

Other hot chocolates may be far more reasonable.

Hot chocolate is by far my favourite hot drink and if I could drink it multiple times a day with no consequences, I would, but it's a huge amount of sugar and there is a history of diabetes in my family so I limit myself to 1 a day or so, and forego it completely if I eat something else sugary.

In your shoes I'd have a look at the amount of sugar you're drinking as it sounds like it could be a lot.

I don't think that much hot chocolate can be good for you. Very sweet and caloric. Have you ever tried Barleycup?

The ones you're talking about contain either a lot of sugar or a lot of sweeteners. Drink what you like, youre and adult but they're not the healthiest thing in the world. Tea?

The awake feeling is probably a sugar rush. As others have said, hot chocolate is typically higher in calories and sugar.

Lots of coffee shop coffees are hundreds of calories too so I wouldn’t necessarily think that’s why it’s seen differently.

I think of hot chocolate as a child’s drink. Maybe that’s why he sees it as being different to coffee?

Have you tried drinking cacao powder, NOT cocoa powder. It has no added sugar, but also includes some protein, fat, fibre and minerals. It's still more calorific than tea or coffee, but far better for you than hot chocolate.

It's the sugar spike making you more "alert" not the caffeine. Multiple hot chocolates a day is terrible for you. It's VERY different from coffee -- black coffee has no sugar and almost no calories.

What about a mocha OP? I used that to ween my way onto coffee

How fat do you want to be?

Agree with @brentwoods - there simply isn’t enough caffeine in a hot chocolate to have an impact.

Whatever works for you. People saying it’s high in sugar and fat- what about those who drink at least one of those Starbucks ‘coffees’ daily that are full of syrups, cream and what not, many over 3-400 cal per drink?