I made molasses hot chocolate to get more iron into my diet (1 cup of milk, 2-3 Tbsp. cocoa powder, and 1 spoon of molasses)---if you add ground ginger, it tastes like gingerbread cocoa.

isometimes i makes hot chocolate with whey powder. also sometimes i add vanilla- it seems to add sweetness without sugar

I appreciate this post since I vowed to lay off the toxic hot chocolate mixes but now it's -12 F and I'm missing the warm cocoa. Sugar is the worst part and supermarket mixes are very nasty. Also big commercial cocoa farms destroy forests so I'm trying to find mixed species crop farms - birds and sloths love to live on those!

What makes turbinado healthier than white sugar? (Not being snarky--I really don't know.)

When I was growing up, my mom only made hot cocoa by heating skim milk on the stove and stirring in a heaping tsp of cocoa powder (Hershey's) and a tsp of sugar. These days, I replace the sugar with honey, but it's about the same. If I want something a little more interesting, I throw in some hot spices, like paprika, cayenne, a tiny amount of cinnamon or ginger, or even a dash of hot sauce (one that is not vinegar-y of course, since that would curdle the milk). Also, making your own instant cocoa is really easy and a great replacement for the packets. Just combine the amounts of sugar and cocoa you would normally use with instant milk powder. You can multiply this to increase it for bulk and then store it and have hot cocoa as quickly as you can heat water.

I've got some dark cacao powder at home, any tips on measurements for making hot cocoa with it?

OOH I'm going to take La Chie (spell) to the next level, grind cacoa nibs, almonds, whole cinnamon, cardamom in my vitamix and warm on the stove!

I also love using fresh dates in smoothies to sweeten!

@pearlgirl White sugar is processed further than turbinado. Evaporated cane crystals is turbinado, they take the turbinado and remove all of the molasses (is that right?) to make it "white."

I always make my own hot chocolate using cocoa powder, sugar (straight-up white!), a little vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Sometimes I add some cinnamon. Recently I saw a sign somewhere for coconut hot chocolate--which I'm guessing used coconut milk? But I've been thinking of trying adding in a little bit of coconut *oil* (which has been a new discovery for me this past year) to my cocoa. Would that be weird?

I love the coconut whipped cream, but it doesn't work so well on warm desserts. Because of the low melting point of the fat in it, it will turn to liquid on contact with the hot chocolate. At least that's been my experience.

I'm trying to wean myself off the sweetness altogether. People drink coffee black; why not hot chocolate? Surely someone else out there is doing this, it's just hard to Google. =P

Current recipe: 1 cup whole milk, 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1/2 tablespoon raw sugar, splash of vanilla.

(Why yes, I do eat 90% cacao chocolate bars for yums, why do you ask?)

"White sugar is processed further than turbinado. Evaporated cane crystals is turbinado, they take the turbinado and remove all of the molasses (is that right?) to make it white."

...Except that doesn't answer the question. That answers why it has no color. Why is turbinado "healthier" than white sugar?

(I expect the real answer is, there is no difference except color/texture/flavor, the use of animal products to refine white sugar, and personal taste preference. Turbinado and white are both sugars and are metabolized the same way. So, not "healthier," just less processed.)

Have other people seen brands of nut milk with much protein in them? I've never used hazelnut milk, but almond milk actually has way less protein than regular milk or soy milk. There are lots of great reasons to use non-dairy milk, but I don't think protein content is one of them.

I'm also not sure about the coconut whipped cream as a healthier substitute - it's just as high-calorie and high-fat as heavy whipping cream (the comments in the linked article note this). So it's probably a delicious variation, but not necessarily "healthified."

NODR - Nut milks average 1 gram of protein per serving, while dairy milk has 7-9 grams. The amino acids are pretty limited compared to the variety in dairy milk, too. The nut meals are where all the protein (and fat and fiber) go. Nut milks are good sources of vitamins and minerals, except, of course, B12.

Soy milk is comparable to dairy milk in protein levels.

I'm not sure if turbinado sugar does indeed contain molasses, but if it does, it would mean that it is healthier than white sugar. Molasses contains lots of minerals (copper, iron, selenium) and also a decent amount of B6.

It is also safe to say that the further an ingredient is processed (especially industrially processed) the less healthy it is, because those minerals and vitamins tend to be lost, or at least decreased. That's why many health-oriented people choose to eat whole foods.

In regards to using coconut milk as a healthier alternative to traditional whipped cream made from heavy cream: there is research that says that coconut milk raises your HDL cholesterol (good) while cow's milk raises your LDL (bad), so substituting heavy cream with coconut milk seems to make sense.

But that's just my layperson's understanding of things!

@Unegen

I should have elaborated. When you strip the turbinado of the "color" it also takes out minerals and other nutrients that are naturally occur in the cane.

Kitchn commenters are the best - what great ideas here. I hope no one minds I'm saving these ideas for my boyfriend and I for winter hot chocolate drinks!

I just use my food processer to pulverize nice (60-70% cocoa) dark chocolate like ghiradelli. Two tbsp of the pulverized chocolate in the bottom of a cup.
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan, pour slowly over the chocolate, whisking fast with a small whisk in the cup. So delicious.

let's be honest ... sugar is sugar is sugar ... which is something you can enjoy without feeling the need to healthy it up! i like the minimally processed cane sugar, but i have no illusions it's healthier because some trace mineral might be in it!

maybe if you make your own nut milk there is more protein because more of the pieces are left in it?

this is making me want to make some hot chocolate, but it always gives me a sore throat if i drink it before bed. love the cinnamon and spice ideas!! yum!

Its unbleached?

In the Philippines, we make traditional hot chocolate with tablea (ground cacao shaped into chunky round blocks), muscovado sugar, and buffalo milk. Not exactly healthy, since the tablea contain all of the cocoa butter and buffalo milk has higher milkfat than cow's milk, but the taste and texture beats the packaged stuff anytime. :-)

I love hot cocoa but can't stand all the sugar. I'll usually make cocoa with a sugar substute and then add a sugar free mocha syrup to give it an extra kick. That way, when I add a few marshmallows on top, I don't feel so guilty.

This is my current favorite way: heat up 8 oz milk, whisk in 1 tsp dark brown sugar and 1 heaping tsp of cocoa. For some reason the dark brown sugar is way tastier than white sugar.

Then there's my other favorite, hot vanilla. Heat up 8 oz milk, mix in 1 tsp dark brown sugar and a splash of vanilla extract. Bourbon recommended.

I heat up low fat milk and good chocolate on the stove, then when the chocolate is nice and melty, I put it in the blender for a couple seconds. (If I had an immersion blender, that would be even easier.) The blending intensifies the chocolate flavor substantially more than if you just melted it and whisked it into the milk. That way, you can use a little less chocolate and feel better about it. Yum!

Should we really automatically assume that non-dairy = healthier? For most people who don't have a problem with dairy products, they're probably as healthy as anything else to consume, especially as a dessert drink, which is what hot chocolate is. Put in or take out anything you like, but to be hot cocoa, it has to have chocolate and sweetener plus something fatty-tasting as a vector.

You need to watch Modern Marvels Sugar. Sugar cane or beet is processed into a supersaturated (syrup) that is then crystallized. A centrifuge is then used to spin out the molasses from the white sugar.
Turbinado sugar is collected pre-spinning
White Sugar is collected post-spinning
Molasses is collected post-spinning
Brown sugar is a recombination of white sugar and molasses.

All are natural products.

Actually, there are many types of sugar and how the body responds to the different sugars is different and important to those with hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, lactose intolerance or other specific metabolic issues.

Monosaccharides (simple sugars, absorbed directly by the body)
Glucose, Fructose, and Galactose.
Fructose and Galactose are processed by the liver. Glucose travels the blood stream and is absorbed directly by cells. Insulin helps regulate the amount of glucose in blood. Trouble regulating glucose leads to diabetes or hyperglycemia. Fructose and Galactose do not affect blood sugar, and therefore can be eaten by diabetics.

Disaccharides (compound sugars). These are broken into their simple sugars during digestion.
Sucrose is a fructose and sucrose chemically bonded. This is table sugar.
Lactose is a sugar found most commonly in milk, a glucose and galactose combined
Maltose is found in malts (fermented grains, like barley malt), and is two glucoses combined.