Hot chocolate recommendations

[evilharpy]

My 11 year old is getting a hot chocolate maker (not the Hotel Chocolat one but similar). I need some hot chocolate to go with it, any recommendations for nice sachets or maybe a nice tin? She wouldn't like anything too dark or bitter.

I like the Costa hot chocolate powder - less than £4.

If you're feeling rich Charbonnel and Walker flakes are delicious 😋

I was going to recommend Willie’s cacao, but that might be a bit dark for her.

Knoops is lovely, they do a whole range of milky chocolates. They are flakes which are great in a hot choc maker (but it needs to be fairly powerful). I also do really like the Hotel Chocolat sachets.

Twinings powder is quite nice but I am a flake person now.

My DC’s favourite for a special occasion is Whittard. They do lots of different flavours, and they all come in pretty tubs. I usually put one in their Christmas stockings.

M&S do a nice one too, at Christmas, with flakes of milk chocolate, and it’s much cheaper than whittard.

There's a Knoops in the nearest big city to us, when it first opened there were queues stretching way round the corner, I wondered what the fuss was all about. must be good! There's also an Hotel Chocolat although we don't unfortunately have Whittard. The very posh ones might be a bit wasted on her, she likes to think she's very fancy but in reality often prefers Galaxy to posher chocs, so Costa or M&S might be a good shout. Thanks, will check out all these options.

What hot chocolate maker did you buy?

It was just a Salter one from amazon, nothing fancy.

What does a hot chocolate maker do? Do you have to put water in them?

It heats and froths the milk and melts the chocolate if it's flakes, and whisks it all together so it's smooth and lump free. I've seen them in action in friend's houses, they do seem to be pretty good - not for me as I can't stand the stuff but friends who have them seem to really like them.

Another vote for Costa hot chocolate, I brought as a gift for my friend and she's raving about it, much nicer than others apparently. I like options mint!

I second Whittards, they have a lovely variety of hot chocolates. I’ve hot a different one for each of my DC stockings https://www.whittard.co.uk/hot-chocolatehot-chocolate

Dc2 has hot chocolate and has always liked the Costa one. However this year I bought him the Tesco chocolate orange one and says its the best. Obviously depends on if he likes flavours in.

It’s pretty £££ but the harth stuff is really good! https://harthchocolate.com/

My DD (25) is very partial to Whittards. We always nip in for the free samples when it's cold. This time it was white chocolate and pistachio (overly sweet, but rather nice) or mince pie milk chocolate (not so nice). I suspect if your DD is a galaxy girl she'd enjoy the former.

I think the trick for really good quality hot chocolate is to make sure you buy ones without powdered milk added. Costa and Starbucks are both in this category but still nice and sweet for a child's taste.

The green and blacks one is my favourite but it is ridiculously expensive and we've stopped buying it. I have been toying with treating myself over Chrsitmas though!

The Twinnings Swiss hot chocolate powder is our favourite. Better than Hotel Chocolat

It sounds awful but I love Whittards Raspberry ripple hot choc. The apple struddle, cherry bakewell and marzipan are nice too but not as good.

Thanks for starting such a useful thread - MIL is fond of her bedtime hot chocolate so this is just the thread I needed. I've ordered some Knoops, which she won't have tried ass she lives out in the sticks.

I used to have a milk heater frother ( not a Velvetiser but similar ) we use soya milk with is sweet already
I did buy Knoops ( we went to the one in Brighton for hot chocolate which was delicious ) and the HC sachets but I;m not a fan of the flavoured ones .
It was DW safe but even after giving it two cycles of heat/whisk it wasn't hot enough for me

I bought myself an Aerolette whisk and I have a metal tall pan that goes on the hob so when it's Christmas I;m going to open the Lindt chocolate powder and give it a go
I don;t like milk in the microwave