Homemade Healthier Hot Chocolate Milk 自制健康热巧克力奶

Most of us agree that a cup of hot chocolate milk could cheer you up, especially during the long and cold winter season.

As paranoid as I am about the additional added sugar in chocolate milk sold in stores, I do enjoy the sensation. For that reason, I decided to make chocolate milk at home. Doing so, not just the additional sugar is avoided. You also get to choose the source of “chocolate”, which could be either cocoa powder or cacao powder. Since, I don’t make chocolate milk every day, I use organic cacao powder which is more expensive but certainly contains more antioxidants, enzymes and iron, magnesium, and more potassium than cocoa powder. These difference in nutrients are caused by the processing. Both cocoa and cacao the harvested beans are fermented for a few days to develop a flavor and then they are dried. While in the next step cocoa is roasted at a high temperature, cacao is raw, and it does not go through roasting. Besides these nutrients, both cocoa and cacao powder are high in fibers.

To add more flavor and texture, I add a small chunk of dark chocolate which is dissolved and mixed into the milk by heating. Again, I choose chocolate with at least 85% cacao content to avoid additional sugar and other additives.

Another benefit of homemade chocolate milk is that I could choose the type of milk. There are lot of discussions on the internet about pros and cons of milks. I prefer non-homogenized milk which is supposedly gone through less beating and processing. I sometimes use raw milk which is disliked by kids. They say it has some strange smell even after boiling. I don’t know what to say about this. Our taste buds are so used to all the processed food and we are losing (have lost) track of the real taste of real food while we surrender to the convenience of highly processed foods.  

I didn’t try to optimize the ratio of my recipe. The finished chocolate milk is not as smooth as the one sold in stores. Despite the floating fat (from the milk or cacao or dark chocolate) on the top, it is certainly a lot healthier than what’s sold at stores. I am not worried when kids drink this kind of chocolate milk.

One caveat: if you are sensitive to caffeine, don’t use it in the evening. Cocoa and cacao do contain a good amount of caffeine.  

After I share this recipe with a friend grew up in Colombia, I learned that people over there and in Mexico prepare this drink all the time. They would like to make it foamy and have a set of cookware.