Beaumont Hot Cocoa

You know the drill: cold foods are popular in the hot months and hot foods are popular in the cold months. In the summertime, it’s ice cream. In the wintertime, it’s chili.

As I’m writing this, temperatures are most certainly not going up and the days are most certainly not getting longer. It’s cold outside, and it’s going to get a lot colder (and darker) before it gets warm again. To combat this looming menace, we’ve broken out the slow cooker and we’re no longer stocking our home freezer with ice cream.

In my mind, there’s one weapon that symbolizes the fight against winter better than any other. It’s hot cocoa, that mix of hot liquid and dry powder that goes in your favorite mug. You can find hot cocoa in any grocer. That includes Aldi.

Beaumont Hot Cocoa appears to be a Regular Buy, which means you can find it in Aldi stores all the time. At the time of this post, a box of the cocoa cost $1.49. There are eight individual envelopes in each box, which brings things to about 18.6 cents a serving. It comes either with or without mini-marshmallows.

The instructions are printed on both the box and the envelopes, and if you’re familiar at all with hot cocoa mix you know how this goes. First, you’ll need a liquid: either water or milk or a combination of the two. I prefer all whole milk myself, but do whatever works best for you.

Next, you’ll need to heat that liquid. You can heat it in a saucepan over a stove, or perhaps — if you want water and your hot water heater makes it hot enough — fill your mug out of the tap. More easily, you can place your liquid in a mug, then heat it for about 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave. If you heat it first outside the mug, you may want to add the powder to the mug first, then stir the hot liquid in. Otherwise, if you microwave your mug with the liquid in it, you’ll have to stir the powder in. Seasoned cocoa drinkers will tell you to leave a little room in your mug for the powder; otherwise you’ll find it flying off onto your counter.

This is good cocoa, both with and without the marshmallows. It’s rich and has a great flavor. My whole family loved it, and we thought it was as good as any name-brand cocoa mixes we’ve bought. You can add something like whipped cream if you want to give it something extra, but we thought it did quite well on its own.

Ingredients and instructions: with marshmallows. (Click to enlarge.)

Ingredients and instructions: without marshmallows. (Click to enlarge.)

The Verdict:

Aldi’s Beaumont brand hot cocoa is perfect for those dreary days when you need something hot in your mug. Easy to make, and tastes great. Recommended.