What makes a good hot chocolate mix

A good instant hot chocolate mix should deliver deep chocolate flavor and creamy consistency without melting or chopping.

We tested 15 hot chocolate mixes

We sampled 15 supermarket and specialty varieties including Swiss Miss, Starbucks, Ghirardelli, Guittard, Dandelion Chocolate, Jacques Torres, and Valrhona.

Starbucks Classic won for classic cocoa

Starbucks Classic Hot Cocoa tasted like childhood hot chocolate with satisfying milk-chocolate flavor and silky texture.

“Tasters immediately recognized this as "classic cocoa," as senior cooking editor Kelsey Jane Youngman put it.”

Guittard for richer chocolate

Guittard Grand Cacao Drinking Chocolate offers deep chocolate flavor and smooth texture with a bittersweet balance.

“Guittard makes some of our favorite chocolate chips and the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen’s go-to cocoa powder, so we had high hopes for its hot cocoa.”

Dandelion Chocolate for complex flavor

Dandelion House Hot Chocolate Mix delivers fruity, intensely chocolaty flavor with a velvety consistency.

“Tasters picked up notes of red berries buried in the deep chocolate flavor, a reminder, per senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk, that cacao is indeed a fruit.”

Why these mixes won

Starbucks Classic balanced sweetness and chocolate flavor, Guittard struck a bittersweet balance, and Dandelion offered complex, fruity notes.

“Guittard struck an ideal bittersweet balance with "just enough sweetness to get away with it," according to food director Chris Morocco.”

Other mixes we tried

Abuelita Mexican-Style, Cadbury, Ghirardelli, Great Value, Jacques Torres, Lake Champlain, Nestlé, Raaka, Sillycow Farms, Swiss Miss, Trader Joe’s, Valrhona, and Vosges La Parisienne were tested.

“Cadbury Hot Chocolate: An overpowering sweetness muddied any true chocolate flavor.”

How we tested

We prepared each mix according to package instructions using hot water or milk, then served it warm in individual cups.