The best hot chocolate mix is creamy, chocolatey, and ready in an instant. I mean, who has the time to warm milk in a pot and break out the whisk to make hot chocolate with actual cocoa powder, sugar, salt, vanilla, etc.? Some of us have children and cats and partners and needy potted plants. We can’t mess around with multiple dishes and kitchen tools. When we want hot chocolate, we want it now. We want to simply combine hot chocolate mix with hot water and stir. That being said, we still want it to taste creamy and like it’s at least heard of a cacao nib.
Over the course of two separate taste tests, the Sporked team gathered some of the top-selling and most popular hot cocoa mixes to find the best hot cocoa mix out there. We used both hot water and milk to taste both versions of these hot chocolate mix brands. Here are the options for the best hot chocolate mix on the market.
- Land O Lakes Chocolate Supreme
We were absolutely reamed by Sporked readers for not trying Land O Lakes hot chocolate mix in the first round of our hot cocoa mix taste test. This time around, we made sure to try it. And not just one Land O Lakes hot chocolate mix, all of them. Every single flavor. We thought they were good! It’s not the best hot chocolate mix (sorry!), but we like it. This Chocolate Supreme version is our favorite of the bunch. When made with milk, it’s rich and decently chocolatey. Land O Lakes isn’t just a butter company, people! —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Swiss Miss Indulgent Collection Dark Chocolate
This is the best hot chocolate mix to pick up if you want a more grown-up version of a childhood favorite, for sure. It’s dark and indulgent. It keeps you coming back for sip after sip. If Great Value (see: #4) is hockey game or football game cocoa, this is Ice Capades hot cocoa mix. It’s a little fancier—a little more upscale. It’s richer and feels like it’s really warming you up from the inside. It’s the type of hot chocolate you hold with both hands, just under your nose, breathing in the warm, sweet vapors before taking a sip. A cinematic hot chocolate. —Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Great Value Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix
If hot cocoa isn’t a once-in-a-while treat for you but a regular, everyday beverage, then you should stock up on a few tubs of Walmart’s signature mix. It’s a solid, football game-style hot chocolate. (Those from the Northeast can sub “hockey game” in for “football game,” if that makes more sense.) It’s terrifically creamy, even without any milk or actual cream, and it is definitely sweet. You don’t get a ton of authentic chocolate flavor, but it will scratch a hot cocoa itch, making it the best hot cocoa mix on a budget. —Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Good & Gather Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa Mix
Good & Gather, aka Target, Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa Mix is the best hot cocoa mix when it comes to unique flavors. Their salted caramel is so rich, salty, and decadent. It tastes like something you’d get at a local coffee shop. Good & Gather also sells hot chocolate mix flavors like double chocolate and peppermint, which are very good too. But for our money, this salted caramel hot chocolate way to go. Jordan promises you will like it. That’s a certified Jordan Myrick guarantee! —Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix
Not only does Trader Joe’s cocoa have the best packaging but the beloved/cultish store also makes the one of the best hot chocolate mix options you can buy at the grocery store. “It has a nice cocoa flavor,” said Sporked managing editor Gwynedd Stuart. “It’s sweet but not obnoxiously so.” It has a cocoa flavor that stays with you with a pleasantly bittersweet finish. It tastes like real chocolate and that makes it real good. Admittedly, this is the cocoa writer Jordan Myrick currently has in their pantry. They didn’t come in thinking it would win, but they feel delightfully validated that it did. —Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett
- Nestle Classic Rich Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix
There is no better hot chocolate mix out there than Nestle Classic Rich Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix. It is truly the best hot chocolate mix you can buy nationwide at the grocery store. It is so rich and creamy and chocolatey. Even when made with water, it tastes like it was made with whole milk. That makes it a great accessible and money-saving option. But it wouldn’t matter if you were the richest person in the world! This is still the best hot chocolate mix that we would recommend to you because it really is that good. —Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Fan Favorite
Best Dark Chocolate
Best Value
Best Flavored
Best Budget
Best of the Best
Other Products We Tried:
Treat Life, Starbucks Classic, Swiss Miss Lucky Charms, Nestle, Select, Beaumont, Swiss Miss, Sprouts, Numi Drinking Chocolate, Land O Lakes (all flavors), Good & Gather (all flavors)
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