Caotina Surfin Swiss Premium Chocolate Drink

Brand: Caotina Surfin

Name: Swiss Premium Chocolate Drink

Tagline: The cocoa drink made with real Swiss chocolate

Origin: Switzerland

Servings: 10

Weight: 10 x 15g (also available in canisters)

Price: RM19.90

Availability: Village Grocer, Cold Storage, etc...

Ingredients: Sugar, fat reduced cocoa 19% (with emulsifier soy lecithine), glucose, chocolate 7% (sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, fat reduced cocoa, cocoa mass, flavouring vanillin), calcium phosphate, flavouring vanillin, salt, 7 vitamins, (B1, B2, B5, B12, folic acid, niacin, pantothenic acid)

Nutritional information: Calories 57kcal; Fat 0.5g; Carbohydrate 12.3g; Calcium 34mg

Instructions: Mix content in a cup of warm or cold milk

Review:

• Taste: I've made this 10 times (yes, I finished the whole box before actually writing this review). The first few times, I made it with 250ml milk (vague instructions) but it was too thin for my liking. I then lessen the amount of milk by 50ml and it was much better. It is sweet but not tooth-achingly sweet. However, you might find the cocoa taste lacking if you're used to chomping the dark variety. 7/10


• Smoothness: Not surprisingly, it is very smooth. And I do mean very. The dead giveaway is the fact that it can be made with cold milk (which I forgot to try *slaps forehead*). 5/5


• Meltiness: Easy to dissolve. Again no surprises here. Does leave a teensy bit of residue at the bottom, though. 4/5


• Thickness: This is the only thing stopping you from seeing the Swiss Alps when sipping the hot chocolate as it's not thick at all. Come to think of it, gulping the hot chocolate might be the correct term instead. 2/5 


• Worthiness: It works out to RM2 per cup (excluding milk), which is good value for money. 4/5


• Others: Vague instructions is always a major turn-off as you would have to experiment numerous times before discovering the perfect way to make the hot chocolate. I'm not sure whether it's absolving responsibility (well, you made it so it's your fault), laziness, or giving power to the consumers (*ehem ehem*) on the manufacturers' part but I honestly believe we consumers would prefer if they'd just take our hands when it comes to instructions 'cause it defeats the purpose of convenience to do otherwise. Then again, they might be daring us to create better hot chocolates than them. Hmmm... 3/5

Final score: 71.4%


In a nutshell: Delicious and good value for money, if you know how much milk to use.

E. Guittard Grand Cacao Drinking Chocolate

I'm so, so sorry for the very long hiatus as I've been quite overwhelmed with all the hot chocolate I have (yes, it is possible) but thank you, benefactor (you know who you are)!

Brand: E. Guittard

Name: Grand Cacao Drinking Chocolate

Tagline: Fine Dutched (Eh, is it a verb now?) cocoa with ground chocolate for hot chocolate and baking

Origin: USA

Servings: About 7

Weight: 10oz / 284g

Price: US$9

Availability: Amazon.com

Ingredients: Cocoa (Dutch processed with alkali), pure cane sugar, bittersweet chocolate (cacao beans, pure cane sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin), natural flavor

Nutritional information: Calories 150kcal; Total fat 7g; Dietary fiber 5g; Sugars 19g

Instructions:
For each serving, combine 4 tbsp hot cocoa with 1 cup milk in saucepan. Heat on medium-low with constant whisking until hot but not boiling.

Alternatively, combine 4 tbsp hot cocoa with 1 cup milk in microwave-safe mug. Heat on high for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, stopping and stirring at 30-second intervals to dissolve hot chocolate. Heat to desired temperature.

Review:

 

Look at how dark it is

• Taste: I liked this a lot because it wasn't one of those sweet hot cocoa mixes but at the same time, wasn't bitter at all. In fact, dare I say it felt like eating a good bar of 54% dark chocolate (or 55%. I never know)? The instructions were quite vague but since it's American, I used a 250-ml cup. I didn't find it lacking in taste though, so I believed I made the right choice. Why not try making it with 200ml  milk for a richer, full-bodied taste? (Are we doing coffee reviews now?) 9/10


• Smoothness: It was slightly powdery but to be fair, I did use the microwave method. More often than not, the microwave method would produce a  more powdery drink compared to actually cooking the hot cocoa and milk mixture on the stove top. However, since E. Guittard did suggest the microwave method, it should have been a lot smoother. Moreover, it would have been nice to have a bit more froth. 3/5
  
  
• Meltiness: Most of it dissolved, especially the powder bit, but the ground chocolate needed a lot more stirring. What's more, the ground chocolate that didn't melt sank to the bottom of the cup and formed clumps. Major wastage. 2.5/5
  
  
• Thickness: The drink felt satisfying in the mouth and had a nice fullness to it. Shame the ground chocolate did not melt properly though, as it had the potential to be really, really good. 4/5
  
  
• Worthiness: Good value for money, if you are willing to fork out the shipping cost to Malaysia. 4/5
  
  
• Others: This should have been a "guest post" but I thought the hot chocolate needed sharing. Yes, this is not available in Malaysia and I was lucky enough to have received it but if you have always wondered which hot chocolate to get from USA, this should be one of it. The can has a recipe for hot chocolate brownies, which is always a plus point if you have too much hot chocolate at home. It would have been better though, if E. Guittard was more generous with the quantity as you would need 1 1/2 cups (240g) of hot cocoa to make the brownies! Boo! 3/5

Final score: 72.9% (ineligible for ranking as unavailable locally)


In a nutshell: Such a great tasting hot chocolate but lost major points due to the amount of wastage it produced and also its stinginess.

Aero Instant Bubbly Hot Chocolate Drink

Brand: Nestle Aero

Name: Instant Bubbly Hot Chocolate Drink

Tagline: Chocolatey

Origin: UK

Servings: 4

Weight: 4 x 24g

Price: RM14

Availability: Village Grocer, Bangsar Village I

Ingredients: Fat reduced drinking chocolate 42.9% (Sugar, Fat-reduced cocoa powder), Skimmed milk powder, Sugar, Hydrogenated vegetable oil, Lactose, Dried glucose syrup, Thickeners (E415, E466), Salt, Milk proteins, Flavouring, Stabilisers (E331, E340, E452).

Nutritional information: Energy 99kcal; Protein 2.1g; Sugars 14.3g; Fibre 1.2g

Instructions: Empty sachet into a cup or mug, add 200ml of hot water (not boiling). Stir well to release the bubbles and enjoy your deliciously bubbly hot chocolate drink.

Review:

• Taste: I'll be honest; I judged the drink before tasting it. Yes, drink. Drinks are usually full of fake stuff (compare fruit juice with fruit drink) so I wasn't surprised that it had little cocoa taste but it should have not tasted like water with hints of chocolate (hmmm, where have I heard this before?). On first sip, it does remind you of a bar of chocolate but that taste quickly dissipated into blandness. Personally, I've never liked Aero but those who do would appreciate it, albeit for a short while. 5/10
  


• Smoothness: Quite smooth with no powdery taste. Somehow, the cheaper ones usually get this right. Oh, and they weren't kidding about the bubbles. The bubbles are really, really fine but it does make you wonder, did they put SLS in this stuff??4/5
  
  


• Meltiness: Easy to dissolve with very minimal residue. I didn't even have to make a paste. 4/5
  


• Thickness: Average. At least the thickening agent did its job. 3/5
  


• Worthiness: RM3.50 per cup for something that tastes like chocolate-flavoured water is not good value in my books. What's more, it's usually less than RM1/packet in the UK so that's a markup of 350%! 1.5/5
  


• Others: It's funny how I was never attracted to it when it was easily available (and super cheap to boot) but here I am, forking out RM14 to review this. No matter, one of the gripes I have with this is the instructions. If you look at the instructions on the box, it doesn't indicate the amount of water you need but the nutritional blurb on the front does say 'per serving with 200ml water contains...' so if you're one of those people who doesn't bother reading every single word written on packagings, you're not gonna find it. It does say 200ml on the single-serve packets but with all the writings (and brown-ness), there's a fair chance you'll miss it. The chemical-laden ingredients is also quite scary but then again, it is a drink. 2.5/5

Final score: 57.1%



In a nutshell: If you love Aero chocolate bar but can't find it anywhere, try this. But then again, if the shop has Aero hot chocolate drink, it probably has Aero chocolate bar too.