Do you enjoy sipping on a mug of hot chocolate on cold days? Ditch the store bought packets and learn how to make this amazingly easy hot cocoa recipe.
This is the coldest, snowiest winter we’ve had in a few years, so we’ve been spending a lot more time indoors than we have in previous winters. That also means we’ve been drinking a lot more hot tea and homemade hot chocolate too.
After some experimentation, I have come up with the best homemade hot chocolate any of us have ever tasted. My girls won’t touch hot chocolate that comes from a packet anymore. They were gifted some and both of them dumped out their cups after tasting it. They said it just doesn’t compare to my homemade hot chocolate. Aren’t they the sweetest?!
It’s so easy to make your own homemade hot chocolate that there’s no reason to buy the packets. Have you ever read the ingredients on those things? Yikes! Take the Nestle Rich Chocolate Flavor Hot Cocoa Mix, for example. Check out this crazy ingredient list:
Sugar, corn syrup solids, vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel and hydrogenated soybean), dairy product solids (from milk), cocoa processed with alkali, and less than 2% of salt, cellulose gum, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, sodium citrate, sodium aluminosilicate, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, artificial flavors, sucralose.
After you try my homemade hot chocolate recipe, you’ll never buy those packets again. Your taste buds and your body will thank you!

The Best Homemade Hot Chocolate You've Ever Tasted
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup filtered water
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan.
- Immediately whisk the cocoa powder, sugar and sea salt into boiling water.
- Once the mixture has formed a paste, whisk in in the whole milk (you can add more milk to make it less rich).
- Once it’s nearing your ideal temperature, add the vanilla extract.
- Continue to stir and heat until the homemade hot chocolate mixture until it's very hot – but be careful not to bring it to a boil
- Remove from heat and pour into your favorite mugs.
- You can add a little milk (or half and half to make it even creamier) to the homemade hot chocolate if you need to cool it down quickly for eager little ones (like mine).
- You can add your favorite toppings as well. We like whipped cream!