Creative and Flavorful Vegan Hot Cocoa Recipes

[Guest guest]

One of my favorite cold weather beverages is hot cocoa. I'm enough of a cocoa

fiend that I can delight in drinking it regularly without any embellishment

(sugar, milk, etc). If I am in a hurry and want something rich and stimulating,

I simply add plain cocoa powder to hot water, mix, and enjoy. Because I like

drinking it plain, I use a high quality organic variety of unsweetened cocoa

that doesn't need doctoring. However, that doesn't mean I don't also enjoy

devising interesting and delicious new ways to devour this near dessert-like

drink. Sometimes it's just fun to experiment!

 

One of the first hot cocoa variants I delved into was smooth and invigorating

minty hot cocoa. This recipe can be as simple as adding a drop of peppermint

extract to your steaming plain cocoa. If that is too plain for you, peppermint

hot cocoa is greatly enhanced with a little sugar. You can make the beverage

extra creamy by adding your favorite vegan milk or cream substitute. I would

recommend a nice creamy soy milk (almond milk, rice milk, and other milk

substitutes tend to be more watery) or your favorite dairy free creamer (of

which I've seen soy and coconut milk versions).

 

Another exciting hot cocoa flavor I have prepared is spicy, Mayan inspired hot

cocoa. I love drinking spicy hot teas like Celestial Seasoning's Bengal Spice or

one of the many chai-like teas rich in cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cardamom,

coriander, cloves, allspice, and other warming spices made by Yogi Tea. One day

while drinking a cup of a beloved spiced tea, I got the idea to steep my tea in

hot cocoa instead of hot water. The result was a warm, flavorful, velvety

chocolate drink. I found that this zesty hot cocoa was nicely enhanced with a

little agave nectar to soften the bite of the spices. Of course, you could also

add individual spices to your hot cocoa instead but I thought the use of a

pre-portioned tea bag greatly streamlined the whole process.

A third hot cocoa flavor invention I experimented with was inspired by my love

of chocolate covered dried fruit, particularly chocolate covered dried cherries

and cranberries. I decided to try transforming my favorite fruit-chocolate

confections into a flavorful hot drink. This variation is quite easy to prepare.

Simple fill up a mug with about ¾ to 4/5 the normal amount of water used for hot

cocoa. Then, fill the rest of the mug with your favorite high quality cherry or

cranberry fruit juice. I find that the inherent tartness of these two berries

compliments hot cocoa really well. Heat up the water/juice mixture, add the

cocoa, and your done. You could probably add a little agave nectar to your

liking depending on how sweet you would like it. You could probably also use

blueberry juice or any other rich berry juice as well.

 

These variations on classic drinks aren't expensive or time consuming. The

recipes given are also completely free of animal products and prove that vegan

food can be exciting, decadent and uncomplicated to prepare.