The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Warm Winter Cocoas Set: Special Dutch Chocolate Powder

Brand: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Name: Special Dutch Chocolate Powder

Tagline: Makes hot chocolate, cafe mocha, the original ice blended drink (Yes, not exactly a tagline per se but it is written on the can)

Origin: USA

Servings: 4, if following instructions; 6, if adjusted.

Weight: 8oz/227g

Price: RM85 (for a set of 3. Works out to RM28/can)

Availability: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Cafe

Ingredients: Sugar, nonfat dairy milk, non-dairy creamer [coconut oil, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), sodium citrate, mono- and diglycerides, salt, sodium aluminosilicate], cocoa processed with alkali, maltodextrin, salt, natural vanilla flavor, guar gum, propylene glycol alginate, silicon dioxide (to prevent caking), vanillin (an artificial flavor), xanthan gum

Nutritional information: Calories 230kcal; Total fat 5g; Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 270mg; Total carbohydrate 43g (Sugars 36g); Protein 5g

Instructions: Add 1/3 cup of powder to a 12oz mug. Fill cup with steamed milk or hot water and enjoy!

Review: This is part of the Warm Winter Cocoas set and as such, a seasonal item. So it may, or may not, be available in stores.

I've actually made this 3 times, once with half-milk, half-water combo, once with all-milk and lastly with all-water. I recommend using half-milk, half-water combo (or better still, low fat?). All-milk can be cloying whilst all-water tastes like water with sweetened cocoa powder. Some milk is needed to enhance the chocolate flavour. I've also scaled it down to 8oz instead of 12oz cause honestly, who drinks that much at home?  For reference, I used 8oz/250ml liquid to 3 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

Opening the can takes a lot of skills and using your nails just wont cut it. The inside cover has holes so you can use it as a shaker (and prettify your hot cocoa or coffee) but it's almost impossible to 'shake' hot cocoa into a measuring spoon without making a mess in your kitchen. Hence, prying is required and a table knife should do the trick. Don't say I didn't warn you.

• Taste: I literally screamed 'oh, my god! It's soooo sweet!' when I first tasted it (using all-milk). After the initial shock, I thought I was drinking Sustagen Chocolate milk and realised why it smelled so familiar after opening the can (a hassle, as I've mentioned earlier). Then again, I could be wrong about the Sustagen reference cause I haven't been a 6 year-old for two decades (and counting). After the second shock, I was able to recall memories of sipping TCB&TL hot cocoa whilst people watching. So, I suppose that's a good thing. 6/10


• Smoothness: A very smooth hot cocoa with no hints of powderness (is that even a word? No matter, I'll be using 'powderness' from now onwards) Good foam too. 4.5/5


• Meltiness: Easily whisked. Yes, the whisk is not 'for show only'. Using a whisk is honestly quite fun so bonus points for including it. Some residue left, though, 4/5


• Thickness: Water-thin consistency but very creamy. It's almost like drinking melted milk chocolate. Well, almost. 4/5


• Worthiness: It's only the price of 2 cups of TCB&TL's hot cocoa but unfortunately, you can't make that many cups with this mix either (4, according to the can). The amount they give is disappointing 'cause 1/3 of the can is actually air! Oh, and you obviously can't get the cafe's ambience so the price of 2 cups of hot cocoa might be stretching it. 3.5/5


• Others: It's a shame that such a great hot cocoa mix is wasteful when it comes to the packaging (more space/air means higher transportation charges). I also encountered difficulties opening the can. However, some credit has to be given for the shaker top. 3/5

Final score: 74.3%


In a nutshell:A bit on the sweeter side of things but definitely recommended for actually tasting like the hot cocoa you get from TCB&TL cafe. I admit, all-water mixture is nothing to shout about but they did suggest both milk and water preparations so you can't exactly penalise them for that.