Philosophical Vegan Forum

I love hot chocolate when it's cold. Vegan chocolate milks (oat/coconut/soy) are available here, but they're quite high in sugar (~7g/100ml). I think I can make a reasonably healthy alternative my replacing the sugar with artificial sweeteners.

Thus, I've been experimenting with making my own. My recipe has been very simple:
- Unsweetened soy/almond milk
- a bunch of cocoa powder
- stevia
--> throw in blender.

It tastes okay. Better than unsweetened soy milk, but still way worse than the sugar-packed alternatives. Also, you can't really store it since the cacao will seperate from the soy milk and you have to blend it again.

Any suggestions to make it more tasty and store it better?

For reference, my favorite soy chocolate milk is this one, from alpro: https://www.alpro.com/uk/products/drinks/soya-flavoured/choco
The ingredient list:
Water, Sugar, Hulled soya beans (5.8%), Fat-reduced cocoa (1.5%), Calcium (Calcium carbonate), Stabilisers (Carrageenan, Guar gum, Xanthan gum), Flavouring, Sea salt, Acidity regulator (Dipotassium phosphate), Vitamins (Riboflavin (B2), B12, D2), Natural flavouring

Compared to the non-chocolate unsweetened soy-milk:
Water, Hulled soya beans (6.5%), Acidity regulators (Monopotassium phosphate, Dipotassium phosphate), Calcium (Calcium carbonate), Maltodextrin, Stabiliser (Gellan gum), Vitamins (Riboflavin, B12, D2)

(underlined is difference)

1. Mix and match your sweeteners. Use stevia and sucralose in combination, for example. Monk fruit sweetener if you can get your hands on it. Even mix in a pinch of low calorie sweetener like Erythritol.
2. Keep it in a jar or thermos or bottle you can put a lid on and shake (then you don't have to blend again)
3. Add a little vanilla extract, or even chocolate extract; you'll get a much richer flavor.
4. Add a little salt (it's there for a reason)

brimstoneSalad wrote:1. Mix and match your sweeteners. Use stevia and sucralose in combination, for example. Monk fruit sweetener if you can get your hands on it. Even mix in a pinch of low calorie sweetener like Erythritol.
2. Keep it in a jar or thermos or bottle you can put a lid on and shake (then you don't have to blend again)
3. Add a little vanilla extract, or even chocolate extract; you'll get a much richer flavor.
4. Add a little salt (it's there for a reason)

Thanks for your suggestions! I don't have non-stevia sweeteners right now, but I tried the other suggestions and the result is a lot better. It looks very pretty because for some reason it foams up a lot when microwaved. I'm going to try to get my hands on some chocolate extract.

Isn't cold hot chocolate just chocolate milk?
I don't really know how to make chocolate milk myself, but for anyone who wants vegan HOT chocolate, you can use the stove to heat up chocolate milk (non-dairy obviously, like soy).

^Why would you add salt? o_O

EquALLity wrote:Isn't cold hot chocolate just chocolate milk?
I don't really know how to make chocolate milk myself, but for anyone who wants vegan HOT chocolate, you can use the stove to heat up chocolate milk (non-dairy obviously, like soy).

Yes, it is. However, as I point out, store chocolate milks are too high in sugar for my liking.

miniboes wrote:I love hot chocolate when it's cold.

I think this is where the confusion lies. I'm guessing you mean "when it is cold OUTSIDE"?

And yeah, I like to heat up some chocolate soy milk as my hot chocolate as well. I should look in to a lower sugar way of doing it too... I have yet to try stevia, is it really any good?

Sapphire Lightning wrote:

miniboes wrote:I love hot chocolate when it's cold.

I think this is where the confusion lies. I'm guessing you mean "when it is cold OUTSIDE"?

And yeah, I like to heat up some chocolate soy milk as my hot chocolate as well. I should look in to a lower sugar way of doing it too... I have yet to try stevia, is it really any good?

Oh, yeah, that's probably what he meant. I thought he actually meant that he likes to drink cold hot chocolate.

EquALLity wrote:

Sapphire Lightning wrote:

miniboes wrote:I love hot chocolate when it's cold.

I think this is where the confusion lies. I'm guessing you mean "when it is cold OUTSIDE"?

And yeah, I like to heat up some chocolate soy milk as my hot chocolate as well. I should look in to a lower sugar way of doing it too...

Oh, yeah, that's probably what he meant. I thought he actually meant that he likes to drink cold hot chocolate.

Oh hahaha. Yeah that could've been phrased better.

SaphireLightning wrote: I have yet to try stevia, is it really any good?

I like it, but you gotta get used to it a bit.