The best hot chocolate mix is creamy, richly chocolatey, and ready in an instant. Because 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 easily. We want to simply mix powder with hot water and stir. But we still want it to taste creamy and like it’s at least heard of a cacao nib.
Luckily for us and other time-strapped or simply impatient hot chocolate lovers, the Sporked team gathered some of the top-selling and most popular hot cocoa mixes to find the best hot chocolate mixes out there. We used only hot water when making each cup so we could assess the mixes at their most bare-boned. There was nowhere for these mixes to hide any flaws in our taste test. Here are the best hot chocolate mixes on the market:
- Nestle Classic Rich Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix
There is no better hot cocoa 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.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- 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 best-tasting hot chocolate mix. “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.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- 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 Sporked guarantee!
Credit: Merc
- 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 chocolate mix on a budget.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- 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 is hockey game or football game cocoa, this is Ice Capades cocoa. 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.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Kroger Dutch Hot Cocoa Mix Milk Chocolate
Possibly the sweetest of the bunch, Kroger’s mix also produces the creamiest cream-free cocoa of them all. This one also comes with mini marshmallows, which immediately melt into the cocoa—they could be the source of the mix’s creaminess. We’d like this cocoa on a brisk, winter walk. We want it poured into a to-go mug that we can hold to warm up our hands as we stroll the frigid streets or emerge from our ice fishing cabin onto a deeply frozen lake.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Kroger
Best of the Best
Best Budget
Best Flavored
Best Value
Best Dark Chocolate
Best Creamy
Other Products We Tried:
Treat Life, Starbucks Classic, Swiss Miss Lucky Charms, Nestle, Select, Beaumont, Swiss Miss, Swiss Miss Marshmallow, William Sonoma, Silly Cow, Land O’Lakes
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Camino mix (Canadian company) is amazing; the only better hot chocolate I have had is very expensive shaved chocolate mix from chocolate shops. Incredibly delicious.
Best dairy-free? Swiss Miss!
Swiss Miss isn’t dairy free. Wish it was though.
Have you ever nestled near a fireplace with Land O lakes coco? That is my favorite one out of all.
this is so unhealthy but I use swiss miss milk chocolate as my coffee sweetener most days 😅 it’s delicious tho
Would love a best sugar free cocoa mix recommendation!
Agreed
The last time that I had nestle it was just horrible. Nowadays, I only use hot chocolate powder to add to coffee. If I am making hot chocolate, I heat milk and mix in some ovaltine.
The real answer is Nestlé Abuelita
The only hot chocolate I drink since I found it is abuelita!
Yessssssss exactly!
Yup… iykyk!! Abuelitas is the only hot chocolate worth drinking!
It’s way too slow/unorganized to go through these Spooked rankings… I like the idea, but with no way to pick between categories just makes this website feel useless.
It needs a rankings tab and mini sub tabs for things like Chip rankings/Chicken/Beef/Drinks/Sweets/Ice cream/Frozen etc etc
My favorite is Ghirardelli with semi-sweet chocolate chips
My favorite from years ago is Land O’ Lakes Hot Cocoa. I haven’t had it in quite a while because unfortunately ALL hot chocolate started to disagree with me for some reason. The mix of hot and sweet really messes with my stomach. Or did. I just haven’t chanced it lately. But yeah if you can find the Land O’ Lakes brand give it a try. They had a few varieties. I remember a salted caramel and a mint one which were both pretty nice iirc.
Thoughts on Land O Lakes? I love the white chocolate flavored one as I’d put that as best alternative in my opinion. But that’s just me.
Land o lakes didn’t make the top list? They are so good!
Land o lakes is the best, it’s a crime it was ignored. Lol
Y’all need to try Stephens! Sooo good!
Right?! That’s what I said!
A swing and a miss. How did Ghirardelli not make the list? And why didn’t you try the same flavor with different brands to get a better comparison? And you only used hot water? Disappointed with this list.
You should try Stephen’s cocoa. https://indulgentfoods.com/collections/stephens-hot-cocoa
My wife and I stumbled upon this brand when visiting Colorado and think they are the best so far. Right above Land O’ Lakes.
staff of Sporked.com,
It is an atrocity beyond measure to have excluded all brands of widely available Mexican Hot Chocolate into your considerations. The Mexican people have revolutionized the modern world of flavored milk, and it is a disservice to all visitors of Sporked.com to have left these out. This letter is not meant to criticize the work of Dutch and Swiss culinarians, but to urge the Sorked.com team to confront the severity of their actions and rectify them. It is recognized that Mexican hot chocolate preparations require more time and care before serving than their powdered colleagues, but this will not be accepted as an excuse for such a dreadful offense.
Y’all gotta try the Dandelion Chocolate Hot Chocolate. By far my favorite chocolate company, based out of San Francisco.
Isn’t Cadbury sold on US?
Tim Hortons is the only hot chocolate! Have to order for delivery most of the time, but so worth it! Land o Lakes up there too, but still Timmy’s for the win 🙂
Ugh, I love your lists, but you seriously missed out by not including Land of Lakes hot chocolate. With that said, keep up the excellent work, but be sure to do your research and try all the products available. 🙂
You need to try stevens gourmet. Classic and mint
I love sporked and have loved having y’all on GMM but I know sometimes you listen to the comments so I just came here to beg you to reconsider land o lakes!
Ok, now taste a latino hot chocolate like “Ibarra” or “abuelita” and prepare to get your mind blown
Hi Lina! Mexican Hot Chocolate is getting its own separate ranking so keep an eye out for it!
Should have thrown the Kroger “Private Selection” Double Cocoa in there. Would have dominated. I’m surprised that Abuelita and Ibarra wasn’t tested here also.
You are missing the best brand ( Land O Lakes)
Or Starbucks
Essential Everyday
Ghirardelli
Sillycow Farms
Stephens
All of the other flavors put out by these companies
Where’s the land ‘o lakes representation!!
You need to rerun this including the ghiradelli, Starbucks, ovaltine, and landolakes mixes. All available at Walmarts and targets across the country.
Try the Silly Cow brand hot chocolates. They are the best.
If you didn’t try Stephen’s Hot Cocoa, it wasn’t a legitimate ranking.