This holiday season, our favorite cold-weather drink has taken on some rather untraditional forms. Hot cocoa, usually enjoyed from your favorite cozy mug and topped with marshmallows, is being marketed as a flavor, not just a beverage. In the past month alone, Hershey's introduced Hot Cocoa Kisses, Mars revealed Hot Cocoa M&Ms, DOVE debuted Hot Cocoa Milk Chocolate Promises, Dairy Queen brought back its wholly over-the-top Oreo Hot Cocoa Blizzard, and Pillsbury re-released its limited edition Hot Cocoa Rolls.
The rise of these hot cocoa-flavored products has prompted some serious questions. What is this newfound flavor? Like, is it not...just chocolate? And is it replacing pumpkin spice—gasp—as the new "It" food trend?
According to Google Trends (the search engine's way of tracking what people are looking up online), the answer is: maybe, sorta, kinda. Since 2004, when PSLs were released, the country's fascination with pumpkin spice has spiked during the holiday season and continued to skyrocket year over year. Searches for hot cocoa are definitely on the rise (we compared them to pumpkin spice in the graph, below), but the flavor hasn't quite reached pumpkin spice-level interest. Yet.
The first thing you should know is that there is a difference between hot chocolate and hot cocoa. We're seeing a trend in hot cocoa-flavored foods, not hot chocolate ones. The latter is made with shaved or ground chocolate combined with hot milk or water, so it's often less sweet. Hot cocoa, conversely, is made from cocoa powder (cacao solids separated from cocoa butter, which removes the fat) mixed with sugar and powdered milk.
Of course, the terms "hot chocolate" and "hot cocoa" are often mistakenly used interchangeably. General rule of thumb: If you're craving something more bitter and rich, go for hot chocolate, because it has a higher fat content. If you want a lighter and sweeter drink, hot cocoa is a better bet, because it tends to come out a thinner liquid.
Hot cocoa can be bought in powder packets for at-home use or ordered at restaurants. Some of our favorite fancy versions include the "Azteca Aphrodisiac Sipping Chocolate" from Cacao in Atlanta and Serendipity3's “Frrrozen Hot Chocolate" in New York, which is made of 14 different cocoas blended with milk and ice and topped with whipped cream and luxurious shaved chocolate.
Essentially, what candy companies have done is capitalize on the drink, which they tell us is a "quintessential beacon" of winter.
"Hot cocoa is synonymous with the holidays, and we are excited to bring this adored flavor to our fans this season,” says TJ Kanaris, seasonal brand director of Mars Wrigley Confectionery.
Jan Grinstead, a Hershey's senior manager echoed that sentiment: "Drinking hot cocoa with loved ones has become a beloved family tradition that consumers look forward to every year. We've paired an iconic classic with an on-trend flavor and have already seen some outstanding feedback from our fans."
She's not wrong—people on social media are raving about the hot cocoa Kisses, like this woman, who immediately consumed half the bag.
To see what all the fuss was about, we conducted a ~super serious, super official~ Delish taste test.
"It....literally tastes exactly like a regular Kiss, but just with marshmallow," said one editor.
"It tastes like you dipped your finger in a Swiss Miss packet," argued another.
Upon further investigation (and a confirmation from Hershey's), it turns out the only real difference between regular Kisses and Hot Cocoa Kisses is a marshmallow-flavored crème inside that the company claims gives consumers "the experience of drinking hot cocoa." Dove's product and the new M&Ms have similar marshmallow centers.
So, this hot cocoa trend is basically just a clever rebranding of plain, old milk chocolate—with marshmallow.
The hot cocoa flavor has a rather rich history, so to speak. Its origins date back to the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec cultures, according to the Institute of Culinary Education. Aztec warriors drank cacao before going into battle, and famed Tenochtitlan ruler Montezuma II was rumored to guzzle as many as 50 cups each day.
When missionaries later took the native Central American drink back to Europe, Spaniards sweetened up the recipe by adding cinnamon, sugar, and other spices. It was later solidified into bars and candies, but its original liquid form was preferred by many, including chocoholic Thomas Jefferson. The third U.S. president even wrote a letter to John Adams professing his love for the stuff, according to Mental Floss.
He's not the only OG POTUS to indulge in the tasty treat. George Washington washed down his breakfasts with warm chocolate cream, according to Dining with the Washingtons, a cookbook published in 2011 by the staff at George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate.
The Aztecs, former U.S. presidents, and now candy companies sure to seem to love hot cocoa. Is it possible—could hot cocoa replace pumpkin spice as the new big flavor?
Let's examine some facts. The Pumpkin Spice Latte was born from the brilliant minds of Starbucks staffers on the 7th floor of the company's Seattle headquarters in 2003, according to Vogue. A drop of nutmeg here, a dab of cinnamon there, and a drizzle of pumpkin pie syrup to top it off.
The PSL hasn't looked back since.
Much in the same way M&Ms and Hershey's borrowed the famed hot cocoa "flavor" for their new products, Starbucks similarly took the pre-existing pumpkin spice and made it their own. That was 15 years ago and Starbucks has since sold 350 million PSLs.
“Nobody knew back then what it would grow to be,” Peter Dukes, Director of Espresso for Starbucks, has said of the creation. “It’s taken on a life of its own.” He's right: A seemingly endless stream of pumpkin spice products have come to be, including pumpkin spice vodka, pumpkin spice pancakes, pumpkin spice bagels. Even Pringles got in on the trend, releasing pumpkin pie spice chips.
Dr. Beth Forrest, a professor of liberal arts and food studies at the Culinary Institute of America, argues hot cocoa has the potential to do the same, because it fills "many of the same roles that pumpkin spice does, which is why it has a strong potential to be a popular food trend." Already this holiday season, we've seen hot cocoa come in the forms of rolls, candies, and ice creams.
The flavor reminds people of childhood and innocence, "especially during these times of political angst," she says, adding that "the psychology of 'fear of missing out,' in that it is around for a limited time, only drives consumer desires. Hot cocoa has such a strong potential as a food trend [because it] remains flexible enough to incorporate individual tastes and preferences. One can have it in the form of ice cream, or you can add peppermint, or you can add chili pepper depending on consumer demand."
It's hard to say whether hot cocoa has enough momentum to become the next big thing. Sure, it's popular now, but food trend expert Suzy Badaracco of Culinary Tides says hot cocoa just doesn't have the same pizzaz as pumpkin spice.
"Hot chocolate is trying to make it on its own merit which isn’t enough," Badaracco explains. "Its arrogance is what is holding it back. The limiting factor hot chocolate has is that it can only be sweet. Yes you could [add] heat but it still would be sweet and heat, never savory. Pumpkin will always have the upper hand, because it can be sweet or savory."
For the flavor to really take off, food companies need to expand beyond just a singular hot cocoa flavor, Badaracco says. "It needs to form alliances with other flavors, like pumpkin has. It needs to play in other formats like cookies, cereal, bars, popcorn, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and cake. Plus, it needs to show off with regional and global variations."
Of course, there actually are hot cocoa and hot chocolate ice creams already available (Serendipity 3's pint-size Frrrozen Hot Chocolate can be found at 7-Eleven), Pillsbury made a ready to bake hot cocoa cookie last year, and Boom Chicka Pop has a hot cocoa marshmallow flavored kettle corn available, so maybe there's hope for the cocoa trend yet.
It's in your hands now.
