Sooooo, I like hot chocolate. More recently, I’ve started making it from scratch (and by scratch, I mean the recipe on the side of the Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder box), instead of buying packets, which are way too sugary for me. (As a side note, the Starbucks hot chocolate packets are pretty good). The original single-serving recipe calls for 2 tbsp of sugar. It’s not bad, I love it! However, this morning, I decided to try honey. Mostly because we have lots and I don’t want it to harden and be unusable (it’s happened before!), but also because I’ve been wanted to experiment with honey as a sugar substitute.
If I’m being totally honest, I originally thought maybe honey had healthier attributes than sugar, which was my initial drive for the substitution. After lots of research, I found that it won’t make much of a difference, and if it does, it will be very slight. If you want to get picky, yes, it’s sweeter than sugar and while teaspoon-for-teaspoon honey has more calories, the thinking is that you’ll use less, perhaps in the long-run lowering your calorie intake from sweeteners. I think this is probably crap for most people (people like them their sweets!), so I really think taste should be the driving factor. Don’t take my word for it, check out both sides of the honey versus sugar argument and decide for yourself. I know I’m not being any healthier and I want a different taste. I’m happy with that.
Ingredients (adapted from Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa Powder box):
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch processed or other, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t really make a difference)
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp honey
- dash salt
- splash vanilla
Directions
- Combine cocoa powder and salt in a mug.
- Microwave milk until desired temperature is reached. (2 minutes works for me)
- Add vanilla and honey to milk, stirring until dissolved.
- Add milk mixture to mug and stir until dissolved.
The sugar version of this tastes good of course, but the honey version added just a hint of extra flavor. I’ll be doing this from now on!
Give doomthings your brain-words!