Best hot chocolate to buy in 2025, tried and tested

Best hot chocolates to buy in 2025

Hotel Chocolat Milky 50% hot chocolate drink

Available from Hotel Chocolat (£14.95), John Lewis & Partners (£15), Very (£29.90 for two packs), Amazon (£29.90 for two packs)

Best luxury milk hot chocolate

You can find a Hotel Chocolat on most high streets and shopping centres in the UK. From a small start in 2004, it now has 106 stores and cafés and a strong online presence. It has a wide choice of all things chocolate, including the drinking variety.

We test the highly popular Milky 50%, which is more mellow than the 70% and better suited to those who prefer a less sweet drink. This set comes with 10 single-serve sachets of hot chocolat flakes – perfect if you already have a Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser – and it’s also vegan-friendly and gluten-free.

In our test, the flakes melted in an instant and the quality of the chocolate shines through. There are also several other interesting flavours to choose from, including a rather tempting salted caramel.

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Green & Black’s organic hot chocolate (300g)

Available from Amazon (£6), Sainsbury’s (£6)

Best budget hot chocolate powder

You can find Green and Black’s hot chocolate in supermarkets across the UK. It gets points for its availability and price, the lowest on test.

The packet suggests mixing 4 tsp hot chocolate powder to 250ml scalded semi-skimmed milk, or use the same ratio and heat in the microwave for 1 min 40 seconds.

We try both methods and in both cases the drink is very light and a little bland – one tester says it only tastes of hot milk. We up the number of teaspoons with much better results – it’s creamier and chocolatey.

The microwave recipe also works well, but beware the risk of burning the chocolate unless the microwave is used precisely.

Of the ‘off the supermarket shelf ‘ brands on test, this is our favourite as it’s less sweet and has a more pronounced taste. Definitely worth having a tub of it in the cupboard. Organic, fat-reduced cocoa powder.

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Spice Kitchen hot chocolate (100g)

Available from Spice Kitchen (£6)

Best sweetened hot chocolate

This self-proclaimed ‘yummiest’ hot chocolate is a powder made of fat-reduced 25% cocoa powder and sugar. Spice Kitchen suggests mixing the powder with water to create a paste before adding hot milk.

The fine powder blends quickly with the heated milk and melts quickly. The result is a more cocoa-like drink, perfect if you like a lighter yet still chocolatey flavour. There is high praise for the taste, though a few testers find it a little too sweet.

We also like the ethics of the mother-and-son team behind Spice Kitchen, who produce award-winning spices, spice blends and gin. Through sales of their products, they help children in India to receive nutritious midday meals through the Akshaya Patra Foundation. Dairy- and gluten-free, high in sugar.

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Bullion single-origin drinking chocolate (250g)

Available from Bullion Chocolate (£14.95)

Best small-batch drinking chocolate

Award-winning Bullion chocolate is a relative newcomer to the chocolate business, founded in 2016 by Max Scotford in Sheffield. He follows the bean-to-bar approach for chocolate-making and is one of only a handful to use craft, small-batch techniques to bring the best out of the cacao.

On opening the packet of chocolate, we are welcomed with a waft of heavy chocolate. A peep inside shows some serious chunks nestled into the powder.

We test a 50% single origin chocolate from Santo Domingo, Ecuador – the only hot chocolate Max currently makes. He suggests mixing 30g chocolate with hot milk (an unspecified quantity – we use 200ml), stirring until the chocolate melts.

We follow these instructions and find that the chocolate melts very quickly, and are very impressed by the rich, thick texture, depth of flavour and creaminess.

For 50% chocolate, it tastes much deeper and darker with a lovely sweetness. Like a good wine, Max offers tasting notes – expect roasted nuts, butterscotch and vanilla. Not suitable for vegans, contains sugar.

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Cocoba hot chocolate bombes

Available from Not On The High Street (£14.95, set of 3), Cocoba (£10.95, set of 3)

Best hot chocolate bombs

Celebrate a special occasion with these fun hot chocolate bombs from Cocoba. Simply drop the bomb into a mug of steaming hot milk and watch the magic happen as the chocolate melts and releases the mini marshmallows in the middle.

The creamy pure Belgian milk chocolate melts easily and makes for a rich and smooth texture. It’s on the sweeter side, but subtle enough for adults to enjoy with the kids. This pack of three makes a great gift or stocking filler at Christmas.

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Cosy Chocolate original plain drinking chocolate (160g)

Available from Cosy Chocolate (£2.50)

Best plain drinking chocolate

Cosy Chocolate is a small homemade hot chocolate business based in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside. It makes hot chocolate in a range of flavours, with an aim ‘to create the perfect cosy moment in a mug’.

Its 62% chocolate is a handcrafted and hand-flaked drinking chocolate with a rich, dark colour. There is no given quantity of milk in its recipe, so we used 200ml and 4 tsp chocolate.

The chocolate disappears into the milk in an instant and with a few stirs, froths up. A delicious aroma conjures smiles all-round. This is a lovely, deep-flavoured drink with a velvety texture. It lives up to its name – we immediately want to hunker down and enjoy it. Suitable for vegans, may contain milk.

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Modern Standard 52% hot chocolate (200g)

Available from Modern Standard (£6)

Best for coffee fans

Modern Standard is first and foremost a coffee company, however it offers one hot chocolate sourced directly from a family-run business in Manizales, Colombia. To offset any social impact, it gives 10p from every purchase to a local social impact project.

The chocolate is a light-coloured powder that has an intense, chocolatey aroma. Modern Standard uses Cacao Fino de Aroma beans (a classification of the International Cocoa Organisation), which is the gold standard of all cocoa produced across the globe.

It recommends steaming the hot chocolate, which will only work for those with a coffee machine with a steaming wand. We make a paste with the chocolate and milk, then whisk in scalded milk (around 70C). Modern Standard recommends a 9:1 milk to chocolate ratio, which is handy if you need to make a big quantity.

The texture is slightly grainy, but this doesn’t affect the taste, which is wonderfully deep, strong and quite nutty, even with added sugar. This hot chocolate is delicious. Dairy-free, suitable for vegans, with added sugar.

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How we tested hot chocolate

We made each hot chocolate mix with both dairy and dairy-free milk. For every chocolate sent for testing, we used the quantities and recommended recipe instructions from the company. We scored the hot chocolate against the following criteria on our test matrix:

• Flavour
• Consistency
• Blending
• How easy it is to prepare
• How long it takes to make

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