Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa Double Chocolate

Brand: Ghirardelli Chocolate

Name: Premium Hot Cocoa Double Chocolate

Tagline: Made with real chocolate!

Origin: USA

Servings: 12

Weight: 16oz / 454g

Price: RM25

Availability: Cold Storage

Ingredients: Sweet ground chocolate & cocoa (sugar, cocoa - processed with alkali, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin - an emulsifier, vanilla)

Nutritional information: Calories 140kcal; total fat 1.5g; fiber 2g; sugars 2g; protein 2g

Instructions: 4 tablespoons of hot cocoa + 8oz hot (not boiling) milk

Review:

• Taste: I've made this numerous times, but always by pouring the milk into the cocoa mix. Usually, I would pour half the milk, stir, and pour the other half. This morning, I made a paste first then poured the remainder of the hot milk. Somehow, the second method released flavours I didn't detect before. This is a sweet hot cocoa, no doubt about that, but with the second method, it had a sort of deep-fried taste (although, not that weird). I initially thought there was oil in the mix but a check on the ingredients revealed none. In addition, it tasted chemical-ly (both methods). The cocoa mix itself smells really chocolatey and actually tastes wonderful on its own. 6.5/10
  


• Smoothness: As I've mentioned above, I've made this several times and the paste method, in my opinion, is the better method. The former creates a sud-like (think shower gel) foam, which is bordering worrisome, whilst the latter would produce a good hot cocoa foam which feels full in the mouth. The overall texture is however still powdery, sandy even. I'm in a pickle over this one. 3/5
  

• Meltiness: Easy to dissolve. Very minimal residue. 4/5
  


• Thickness: Does feel full in the mouth and has a pleasant thickness. 4/5
  


• Worthiness: Affordable. In fact, it's not that far off from the American retail price. Kudos! However, do read my other thoughts below. 4/5
  


• Other thoughts: Through my Googling, I discovered that this is is exactly the same as Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa! I think it's also sold in Cold Storage but I can't recall the price. Am I outraged? I'm not very sure but I'll need to reserve my comments until I've tried the twin. This might have been processed differently so for now, I'll give this the benefit of the doubt. It does have 2g of fibre, though, without resorting to any weird (read: unsuitable for hot cocoa) ingredients. On a quite different note, I find 'double chocolate' or 'triple chocolate' claims superfluous, unless it's double or triple dosage. They should name it '2-chocolate' or '3-chocolate' instead. 3/5
  

Final score: 70.0%



In a nutshell: One of the better ones on the market and easily available, if you happen to live near a Cold Storage.