Classic American Hot Cocoa (the Recipe on the Can)
Cocoa powder, sugar and a pinch of salt boiled into a quick syrup, then stretched with a quart of hot milk and a little vanilla and whisked until foamy. Hershey's classic, made for six mugs and a bag of marshmallows.
American hot cocoa is a different drink from European hot chocolate. Wikipedia explains the difference: hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder, hot chocolate from bar chocolate, which still has its cocoa butter, so cocoa is much lower in fat. Cocoa powder exists because in 1828 Coenraad van Houten in the Netherlands patented a press that took out enough cocoa butter to grind the rest into powder. In America, chocolate milling goes back to colonial Dorchester, Massachusetts: the Dorchester Reporter recounts how Dr. James Baker financed the Irish chocolate maker John Hannon in a mill on the Neponset River around 1765, the start of what became Baker's Chocolate. Milton Hershey started making chocolate in Pennsylvania in 1894, and in 1905 decided to concentrate on almond bars, milk chocolate bars and breakfast cocoa, sold cheaply to everyone, according to the National Park Service's history of the Hershey factory. The cocoa recipe Hershey's still publishes, "Perfectly Chocolate" Hot Cocoa, is the classic American cup.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Cocoa powder, sugar and a pinch of salt boiled into a quick syrup, then stretched with a quart of hot milk and a little vanilla and whisked until foamy. Hershey's classic, made for six mugs and a bag of marshmallows.
🇲🇽 The original
Mexico still drinks chocolate the old way: tablets of ground cacao, sugar and cinnamon melted into milk or water and whipped to a froth with a wooden molinillo. See the Mexican Hot Chocolate (Chocolate Mexicano) recipe.
🗳️ Mexican hot chocolate or American hot cocoa? Vote: Mexican hot chocolate vs American hot cocoa →
📖 Myth check: Hot Chocolate vs Hot Cocoa: Is There a Difference? →
Why it works the kitchen science
Syrup first
Boiling the cocoa with sugar and a little water dissolves it fully and cooks out its raw, dusty taste before the milk goes in, so there are no dry lumps floating in the mugs.
Low fat, so it stays thin
Cocoa powder has had most of its cocoa butter pressed out, which is why this cup is light and drinkable rather than thick like European chocolate.
Step by step
- Step 1
Stir the sugar, cocoa and salt together in a medium saucepan, then stir in the hot water until smooth.
- Step 2
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 2 minutes, until it is a glossy, slightly thickened syrup.
- Step 3
Pour in the milk and stir. Heat over medium, stirring often, 5 to 6 minutes, until steaming hot (about 165°F to 175°F) with tiny bubbles at the edge. Do not let it boil.
- Step 4
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Step 5
Whisk hard for about 30 seconds, until foamy.
- Step 6
Pour into six mugs and top with marshmallows or whipped cream if you like. Serve hot.
Classic American Hot Cocoa (the Recipe on the Can)
Serves 6 (6 fl oz each, about 3/4 cup) · about 4 1/2 cups · 15 min total
Cocoa syrup
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (natural)
- Pinch (1/8 tsp) of salt
- 1/3 cup hot water
Finish
- 4 cups (1 quart) whole milk
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional toppings: marshmallows or whipped cream
Method
- Stir the sugar, cocoa and salt together in a medium saucepan, then stir in the hot water until smooth.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 2 minutes, until it is a glossy, slightly thickened syrup.
- Pour in the milk and stir. Heat over medium, stirring often, 5 to 6 minutes, until steaming hot (about 165°F to 175°F) with tiny bubbles at the edge. Do not let it boil.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Whisk hard for about 30 seconds, until foamy.
- Pour into six mugs and top with marshmallows or whipped cream if you like. Serve hot.
Adapted from Hershey's, "HERSHEY'S 'Perfectly Chocolate' Hot Cocoa" (6 servings of 6 fl oz). Hershey's lists "salt" with no amount; a pinch (1/8 tsp) is ours. It says medium heat and "do not boil"; the 2-minute syrup boil is Hershey's, the milk temperature and timings are ours. We use whole milk; Hershey's says "milk". The mint, cinnamon and mocha variations in Tips are Hershey's own. hersheyland.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Hershey's variations, stirred in with the vanilla: Cinnamon Cocoa, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; Mint Cocoa, 1/2 tsp mint extract or 3 tbsp crushed hard peppermint candies; Mocha Cocoa, 1 to 2 tbsp instant coffee powder.
- Natural cocoa (the kind in Hershey's brown can) is what this recipe was written for; Dutch-process works but tastes milder.
- Making a big batch? Keep it warm in a slow cooker on low, stirring now and then.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- "Hot cocoa" and "hot chocolate" are the same thing. Documented that they differ by ingredient (Wikipedia: powder vs bar chocolate); in everyday American speech people use the names interchangeably, so this is a definition, not a rule people follow.
- Baker's was America's first chocolate mill, in 1765. Disputed in its details: local histories call it the first, but one dates the meeting of Baker and Hannon to autumn 1764, and the "Hannon crying on the riverbank" story is told only "as the story goes".
- Colonists drank chocolate before cocoa powder existed. Documented: Wikipedia says colonists sold chocolate from about 1755, and van Houten's cocoa press came in 1828.
Every other hot chocolate
Mesoamerican-Style Cacao Drink with Chile and Annatto
Unsweetened chocolate melted into hot water with red annatto, ground chile, vanilla and a little honey, then poured from cup to cup until it wears a tall head of foam. A modern home version of the drink the Maya and Aztecs prized, not a reconstruction.
Mexican Hot Chocolate (Chocolate Mexicano)
Mexican tablet chocolate, already sweetened and spiced with cinnamon, melted into hot milk and beaten with a wooden molinillo until it foams.
Spanish Chocolate a la Taza (for Churros)
Dark chocolate melted into nearly boiling milk with a little cocoa, sugar and cornstarch, then stirred over low heat until it is thick enough to coat a churro. The Madrid way to start the day or end the night.
Italian Cioccolata Calda Densa
Milk whisked with cocoa and plenty of cornstarch, brought just to a simmer, then finished with melted dark chocolate until it is as thick as a loose pudding. You eat the last of it with a spoon.
Parisian Chocolat Chaud
Whole milk and very good bittersweet chocolate, nothing else but an optional spoon of brown sugar, simmered until thick and served in tiny cups the Paris café way. Inspired by the famous thick chocolate at Angelina; not Angelina's recipe.
Viennese-Style Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream (Heiße Schokolade Wiener Art)
Dark chocolate melted into hot milk with a little honey and cinnamon, poured into cups and capped with a big spoon of stiffly whipped cream, the way Austrian and German cafés serve it.
Colombian Chocolate Santafereño (Hot Chocolate with Cheese)
Cinnamon-scented hot chocolate frothed with a molinillo and poured over cubes of soft fresh cheese, which melt in the cup and are fished out with a spoon. Bogotá's breakfast and afternoon "onces".
Filipino Tsokolate (Tablea Hot Chocolate)
Pure roasted cacao tablets (tablea) dissolved in boiling water, simmered slowly with milk, sweetened with muscovado sugar and frothed with a wooden batirol. Thick, grainy and deeply chocolatey.
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
Nonfat dry milk, powdered sugar, Dutch-process cocoa and ground white chocolate, blitzed into a mix that keeps for months. One scoop in a mug of hot milk tastes like the packet you grew up with, only better.
5-Minute Stovetop Cocoa for Two
Dutch-process cocoa and sugar whisked into a little water for one minute, then whole milk heated through on medium-high until steaming. Two real mugs of cocoa in the time it takes to find the packet.
Frozen Hot Chocolate, Inspired by Serendipity 3
Melted chocolate stirred with hot cocoa mix, sugar and milk, cooled, then blended with ice until it is thick like a frozen daiquiri and piled into a goblet under whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Inspired by, not official.
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