Creative and Flavorful Vegan Hot Cocoa Recipes

One of my favorite cold weather beverages is hot cocoa. I'm enough of a cocoa fiend that I can delight in drinking it regularly without any embellishment (sugar, milk, etc). If I am in a hurry and want something rich and stimulating, I simply add plain cocoa powder to hot water, mix, and enjoy. Because I like drinking it plain, I use a high quality organic variety of unsweetened cocoa that doesn't need doctoring. However, that doesn't mean I don't also enjoy devising interesting and delicious new ways to devour this near dessert-like drink. Sometimes it's just fun to experiment!

One of the first hot cocoa variants I delved into was smooth and invigorating minty hot cocoa. This recipe can be as simple as adding a drop of peppermint extract to your steaming plain cocoa. If that is too plain for you, peppermint hot cocoa is greatly enhanced with a little sugar. You can make the beverage extra creamy by adding your favorite vegan milk or cream substitute. I would recommend a nice creamy soy milk (almond milk, rice milk, and other milk substitutes tend to be more watery) or your favorite dairy free creamer (of which I've seen soy and coconut milk versions).

Another exciting hot cocoa flavor I have prepared is spicy, Mayan inspired hot cocoa. I love drinking spicy hot teas like Celestial Seasoning's Bengal Spice or one of the many chai-like teas rich in cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, coriander, cloves, allspice, and other warming spices made by Yogi Tea. One day while drinking a cup of a beloved spiced tea, I got the idea to steep my tea in hot cocoa instead of hot water. The result was a warm, flavorful, velvety chocolate drink. I found that this zesty hot cocoa was nicely enhanced with a little agave nectar to soften the bite of the spices. Of course, you could also add individual spices to your hot cocoa instead but I thought the use of a pre-portioned tea bag greatly streamlined the whole process.

A third hot cocoa flavor invention I experimented with was inspired by my love of chocolate covered dried fruit, particularly chocolate covered dried cherries and cranberries. I decided to try transforming my favorite fruit-chocolate confections into a flavorful hot drink. This variation is quite easy to prepare. Simple fill up a mug with about ¾ to 4/5 the normal amount of water used for hot cocoa. Then, fill the rest of the mug with your favorite high quality cherry or cranberry fruit juice. I find that the inherent tartness of these two berries compliments hot cocoa really well. Heat up the water/juice mixture, add the cocoa, and your done. You could probably add a little agave nectar to your liking depending on how sweet you would like it. You could probably also use blueberry juice or any other rich berry juice as well.

These variations on classic drinks aren't expensive or time consuming. The recipes given are also completely free of animal products and prove that vegan food can be exciting, decadent and uncomplicated to prepare.