Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix (2024)

This Dark Hot Chocolate Mix is made with just a handful of simple ingredients, such as dark cocoa powder, powdered milk, sugar, and powdered creamer. Top with mini chocolate chips and marshmallows and pour yourself a steaming hot mug of cocoa in just a minute or two!

ThisDark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix recipe is great for homemade gifts, or just keeping on hand for your family! We love hot chocolate varieties… like this Creamy Nutella Hot Chocolate (made in the crockpot!), and Mexican Hot Chocolate. This is one of myDrink recipesyou’ll definitely want to keep on hand!

Hot cocoa mix

This time of year, there’s not a whole lot that hits the spot more than a big steaming mug of hot cocoa. Or hot chocolate, whichever one you call it.

There’s just something so comforting about it. Something so festive.

All of the other hot chocolate recipes here on the website are made from scratch, and require melting chocolate into milk. There’s nothing wrong with that, by any means, but sometimes you want… scratch that… you need, something a little quicker. A little more convenient.

That’s where this delicious hot cocoa mix comes in. Keep a jar of it handy in your pantry for up to 6 months, but I think the marshmallows taste fresher if used before 3 months.

Since it’s already made up, all you have to do is add some to your favorite mug, and top with 8 oz of hot milk, stir, and enjoy!

How to make dark chocolate hot cocoa mix

1. Whisk powders. Add powdered sugar, powdered milk, cocoa powder and powdered creamer to a mixing bowl and whisk to combine and remove any lumps.
2. Transfer to airtight container.
3. Top with add-ins if desired. Top the powdered mix with mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

Additional cooking tips

• Shelf life – the core ingredients of this hot cocoa mix are powdered sugar, powdered milk, cocoa powder, and powdered creamer. The chocolate chips and marshmallows are add ins (delicious ones though!). The core ingredients will last in the pantry for up to 6 months, or maybe even more. With the add ins though, your shelf life will go down a bit, as chocolate chips can go bad and marshmallows harden with age.
• Practical storage solutions – even though the mix looks beautiful all layered in a glass jar, it’s not the most practical storage idea, as it would be hard to scoop out the actual mix without spilling the chocolate chips/marshmallows all over the place. So I usually store the powdered mix in a jar by itself, and use a separate jar for the chocolate chips and marshmallows.
• Use quality ingredients – in a recipe like this, you can definitely taste the cocoa powder/powdered milk. Make sure you’re using quality ingredients. I’ve linked to my favorites in the “Special Equipment for this Recipe” section above the recipe card.

How to use this hot chocolate mix

Bottom line, a 1:2 ratio is my formula for making hot cocoa from this mix. So whatever amount of mix you add, add twice as much liquid. Generally I do 1/2 cup mix and add 1 cup (8oz) liquid.

• Water or milk? Since this mix has powdered milk and creamer in it, technically you can just use hot water to make your hot cocoa. I prefer the flavor of hot chocolate made with milk, but it’s up to you.
• Quick way – the quickest, and easiest way is to add 1/2 cup of hot cocoa mix to a mug and top it with 8 oz of hot liquid (milk or water). Stir until well combined.
• Smoother way – I found that unless you had one of those milk frother type electric whisks, doing it the quick way resulted in a hot chocolate that had little clumps that were hard to smooth out with just a spoon. My preferred method is to add 1/2 cup of the mix to a mug, then add 4 oz of hot liquid. Stir vigorously until you get a thick mixture. Pour in the remaining 4 oz of liquid and stir together until smooth.

Variations of this recipe

• Cornstarch – to make your hot chocolate a bit thicker, add 1 1/2 tsp of cornstarch to your mix.
• Different chocolate – feel free to use regular cocoa powder, and/or different types of chocolate chips. I like to use semi-sweet, but any variety will be delicious.
• Espresso – sometimes I want a little pick me up in my hot cocoa, and espresso definitely does the trick! After you add the mix to your mug, sprinkle in a bit of espresso powder, then top with milk and proceed as usual.
• Flavored creamer – I love the addition of the powdered creamer in this mix; it just makes the hot cocoa a bit decadent and creamier. Feel free to use any flavor of powdered creamer to add different flavors to your hot chocolate.
• Powdered vanilla – adding some powdered vanilla adds a beautiful extra flavor! It can be expensive though, so I didn’t include it in this recipe.

Making hot chocolate mix ahead of time

Recipes like this are actually BEST when made ahead of time. Not because it’s complicated or gets better over time, but because the whole point of a homemade hot chocolate mix is to have a cup of cocoa whenever you want, with minimal effort.

Having a jar or container of this mix on hand means you are just 1-2 minutes from enjoying that cup of hot chocolate. All you have to wait for is the milk to heat up 🙂

Storage

Hot cocoa mix should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 6 months.

Shop the recipe

• Milk frother – I love to use this to mix my powdered mix into the hot liquid! Much faster and you won’t have any lumps.
• Glass jar – you can use any airtight container, but I use this style of jar for so many things!
• Powdered Whole Milk – it seems that non-fat powdered milk is more common, but I really prefer the flavor of whole milk powder. Much more creamy and less bitter.
• Premium cocoa powder – this cocoa powder is amazing, without any bitterness, but it’s pricey, so I’ve linked to my favorite more readily available cocoa powder below.
• Cocoa powder – this is my favorite easy to find cocoa powder.

Be sure to scroll down to check out other readers’ comments for tips and reviews.

And don’t forget, if you’ve made this recipe, leave a comment and please consider giving it a star rating letting me know how you enjoyed it 🙂

Any nutritional information shared is an estimate, and is automatically calculated through a program. If calorie count is important to you, I recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

The Chunky Chef is not a nutritionist and doesn’t provide full nutritional information for recipes as she wouldn’t want to potentially and unknowingly pass along incorrect information.