Monday, January 2, 2017

Winter time, bad weather, sitting in the house on the couch and eventually shoveling snow, then drinking some hot chocolate. I was initially looking for some high quality white chocolate for Christmas gifts, which isn't that easy to find and I get it, it's not actually made from cacao. But I did find a few brands of high quality chocolate mixes and I put a few on my own list. I was gifted two of the three Moonstruck flavors, Classic and Dark Hot Cocoa. The third was one I was most interested in trying, the Mayan variety. However, let me give you the review of the flavors I did receive.

Both recipes are to be made with milk first of all and that's fine. I'm sure the fat content and consistency are important when comparing to making some swiss miss with water. Moonstruck is a highly rated brand by a lot of folks so I was intrigued. They come in a nice tin as well with a metal cap. The instructions are to heat 8 ounces of milk to just under scalding and then mix in 4 Tablespoons of the cocoa itself. Maybe it's me but the mug never really looks completely absorbed and mixed together. It isn't the prettiest cup of cocoa for sure.

Out of the two varieties, the Classic Cocoa has the better taste to me but it still isn't very strong and chocolatey. It is smooth, and creamy, but I need the burst of chocolate flavor and I don't get it. The Dark Cocoa fares even worse to me. The chocolate flavor is even less than the classic and there is a lack of slight bitterness that I have come to associate with Dark cocoa. None of the floral notes either. It just doesn't seem to get there where my pallet can truly enjoy it as a hot chocolate.

I know that making a hot cocoa mix isn't the easiest thing and that there is a slight limit of what to expect from this type of product. With that said, I still find that these fall far short of what I expect from a high end cocoa mix. I want to taste a lot of flavor and these lack that, although the classic mix does have a decent texture and smoothness to it. The Dark Cocoa was a real let down however.


Rating:

Classic Cocoa 2.5/5
             Dark Cocoa 2/5