Drinking chocolate is real chocolate, ground cacao with its cacao butter still in it, melted into hot milk or water. Hot cocoa is usually cocoa powder mixed with sugar, and sipping chocolate is a small, thick serving of drinking chocolate, made to be sipped slowly from a little cup.
We make ceremonial cacao, which is usually drinking chocolate in its plainest form. The tips below work for any brand, ours included.
Drinking chocolate vs hot cocoa vs sipping chocolate
The names overlap, and some products sold as drinking chocolate are really sweetened cocoa powder. Here is what sets them apart:
| Drink | Made from | In the cup |
|---|---|---|
| Drinking chocolate | Real chocolate: ground cacao with its butter, sweetened or not | Rich, glossy and full-bodied |
| Hot cocoa | Cocoa powder, with most of the butter pressed out, usually with sugar | Lighter and thinner |
| Sipping chocolate | Drinking chocolate made with less liquid | Thick and intense, in a small cup |
Under the US standards for cacao products, finely ground cacao (called chocolate liquor, with no alcohol in it) is 50 to 60 percent cacao fat, while regular cocoa keeps 10 to 22 percent. That fat is the difference you taste. "Hot chocolate" can mean either drink, so trust the ingredients over the name; our guide to the difference between cacao and cocoa explains the two words.
Flakes, pieces or powder: the forms you will see most
The form changes how fast drinking chocolate melts, not how good it is.
Thin flakes and shavings
Curls or flakes of real chocolate, often sweetened. They melt the fastest.
Discs, drops and small pieces
Small discs, drops or pieces that measure easily by the spoonful and melt with a minute or two of whisking. Ceremonial cacao often comes this way; ours is whole cacao paste shaved into small pieces that melt in about a minute.
Powders
Some drinking chocolate powders are finely ground real chocolate; many are cocoa powder with sugar and often milk powder, which is a hot cocoa mix. The ingredient list tells you which.
How to read a drinking chocolate label
Four checks on the package:
- Cacao comes first. US labeling rules list ingredients by weight, most first, so look for chocolate or cacao at the top (unsweetened chocolate, chocolate liquor, cocoa mass or cacao paste). If sugar comes first, it is the largest single ingredient, though cacao split across two entries (chocolate and cocoa butter, say) can still outweigh it; the percentage (check 2) gives the total.
- A cacao percentage. The number on the front is how much of the product is cacao: 70% leaves 30% for sugar and everything else, and 100% leaves none. Bittersweet and semisweet only set a floor (at least 35 percent chocolate liquor under US standards).
- Cacao butter kept in. Chocolate, cocoa mass or cocoa butter on the list means real cacao butter in the cup. If the only cacao ingredient is cocoa, it is a hot cocoa mix by another name. Here is why whole paste and powder make such different cups.
- No fillers. The shorter the list, the better: cacao, perhaps sugar, vanilla or a pinch of salt. Milk powder, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, gums and added vegetable oils take up room that could be chocolate.
Ceremonial cacao: the unsweetened kind
A typical ceremonial cacao is just the shelled beans, ground with all their butter, so you decide how sweet the cup is. It has almost no sugar of its own: about 0.2 g in 20 g, by USDA figures for unsweetened baking chocolate, the closest USDA match for 100% cacao.
Unsweetened, it tastes deep and bitter, like the darkest chocolate with the sugar left out; a spoonful of sweetener and a pinch of salt soften it. Cacao has long been a drink: in much of Mesoamerica, cacao drinks "became an integral part of ritual and rites of passage", and they "remain important aspects of ritual activity in some areas today" (Crown and Hurst, 2009). More in our guide to what ceremonial cacao is and why people drink it.
How to make sipping chocolate at home
Use about half the liquid of a mug, and serve it in a small, warmed cup. Starting points for one cup:
- 100% cacao pieces: 20 g (about 2 tablespoons) with 2 to 3 teaspoons of sweetener in ½ cup (4 oz) of milk.
- A 70% bar: about 1 oz (28 g), finely chopped, in ½ cup of milk.
- Sweetened flakes or discs: the package's amount in half its liquid.
Melt the chocolate in a splash of the milk over low heat, then whisk in the rest and heat to about 180°F, without boiling. Our French hot chocolate recipe has the full step-by-step method, plus a spoon-thick Italian cup; for an 8 oz mug, see our everyday cacao hot chocolate recipe.
A 20 g cup of pure cacao has about 16 to 32 mg of caffeine. The low figure is USDA's; published lab data for baking chocolate run about twice as high, because cacao varies from bean to bean. Cacao also contains theobromine. Theobromine is a mild stimulant, so people sensitive to caffeine or other stimulants may feel it. If you are pregnant or nursing, take medication or manage a health condition, check with your healthcare provider first. Cacao and chocolate are toxic to dogs, so keep your cup out of reach. More on how cacao's caffeine compares with coffee.
How to pick the best chocolate for hot chocolate
The best chocolate for hot chocolate, or the best drinking chocolate, depends on how you like your cup:
- Sweet and quick: sweetened flakes or discs.
- Dark: a product around 70%, or 100% cacao with a spoonful of sweetener.
- The least sugar: 100% cacao, sweetened lightly or not at all.
Then run the label checks above and these:
- Real fat on the nutrition panel. By USDA figures, 1 oz (28 g) of dark chocolate with 70 to 85% cacao holds about 12 g of fat; a 28 g serving of cocoa mix powder holds about 1 g. A drinking chocolate with only a gram or so of fat per ounce is mostly cocoa and sugar, whatever the front says.
- Value per gram of cacao, not per scoop. Work out what you pay for the cacao itself: a 70% dark chocolate is 7 g of cacao in every 10 g, the rest mostly sugar; 100% cacao is cacao in every gram.
- A smooth melt: glossy after a minute or two of whisking, with no grit.
Melting a bar? Choose one you like to eat plain. Shopping for pure cacao? Our 10-point checklist for choosing ceremonial cacao covers origin, processing and heavy-metal testing.
Common questions
What is the difference between drinking chocolate and hot cocoa?
Drinking chocolate is made from real chocolate, so it keeps its cacao butter and makes a rich, full-bodied cup. Hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder, which has had most of that butter pressed out, and it usually comes sweetened.
What is sipping chocolate?
Sipping chocolate is drinking chocolate served small and thick, in a little cup, and sipped slowly. It uses less liquid than an everyday mug, so the same chocolate makes a more intense cup: at home, melt about 20 g of pure cacao into ½ cup (4 oz) of warm milk. Brands use the name loosely, so check the ingredients.
Is ceremonial cacao a drinking chocolate?
In the plainest sense, yes: ceremonial cacao is usually 100% cacao paste, the shelled beans ground with all their butter, made to be melted into hot water or milk and drunk. On store shelves, though, drinking chocolate is often a sweetened blend, so check the label. With 100% cacao, you choose how sweet to make it.
Can you make drinking chocolate from a chocolate bar?
Yes. Chop the bar finely, melt it in a few spoonfuls of warm milk over low heat, then whisk in the rest and heat until steaming, without boiling. About 1 oz (28 g) of a 70% bar makes one cup: ½ cup (4 oz) of milk for a small, thick cup or 1 cup (8 oz) for a mug. A sweetened bar may need no extra sugar.
How Alma Cacao fits in
Alma Cacao is 100% whole cacao paste, shaved into small pieces, with the cacao butter left in and nothing added. It is traditionally fermented, sun-dried and stone ground in small batches, single-origin from native communities of the Peruvian Amazon, tested for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury) by an ISO 17025 accredited lab, and made in a GMP certified facility.
The co-op we source from gives 2% back to the producer communities, and we donate another 2% of every sale to For the Love of Mateo. Start with the ½ lb Starter of Alma Cacao: about 20 daily cups, or about 11 small cups of sipping chocolate. US orders over $99 ship free, and unopened product comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
