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Make a comforting cup of herbal hot chocolate as a flavorful and nourishing treat for cold days and nights.
These mugs of sweet, rich liquid can be customized for you own favorite flavors and whatever homegrown dried herbs you happen to have on hand.
These amazing, naturally flavored drinks are the perfect soothing, comforting, and warming cup to grasp on a winter’s night.
Keys to Good Herbal Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate is a super easy thing to make. And honestly making it from scratch is not much more difficult or time consuming than the premade stuff from a box – but oh the flavor is so much better.
Good Quality Chocolate
Start with good quality chocolate, the kind of chocolate you would eat by the bar, not the stuff in the baking aisle, the stuff in the candy aisle / natural foods section of the grocery store.
Good quality chocolate that isn’t full of artificial colors or flavors, the flavor of the chocolate comes through, so use the good stuff. You can use white, dark, or milk chocolate.
Milk or Alternative of Choice
The milk can be any of your choice – cow, goat, coconut, almond, rice, etc. etc. Again use something you would drink straight from the glass.
This is not the place to use something like powdered milk that you might not normally enjoy. Something rich and creamy would be incredible, cream or full-fat coconut milk.
Herbal Hot Chocolate is a tiny exercise in homegrown indulgence, use the best you can afford.
Herbs
While each herb might have particular medicinal or therapeutic qualities in this application, the herbs are used for their individual flavor as a spice rather than as something healing.
The basic recipe is the same, so feel free to use whatever tasty thing you harvested and dried from your garden to customize these cups of herbal hot chocolate. Some ideas include:
- White Chocolate & Lavender
- Milk Chocolate & Anise Hyssop
- Dark Chocolate & Mint (truly mint with any chocolate is incredible)
- White Chocolate & Basil
The recipe below makes two servings but can easily be multiplied to feed a larger crowd, to make a single serving simply cut the ingredient amounts in half.
Herbal Hot Chocolate
Make the most of homegrown dried herbs by mixing up a batch of comforting herbal hot chocolate on a chilly night to comfort the body & soul.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Milk
- 3 Ounces Chocolate, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons Dried Herb
Instructions
- Combine dried herbs and milk in a saucepan. Gently warm the milk, just until it begins to steam, no boiling or simmering - just warmed through. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. Allow the herbs to steep in the milk for 10 minutes.
- Strain the herbs from the milk. Place the infused milk back into the saucepan and add chopped chocolate. Heat gently, whisking the chocolate and milk until the chocolate is melted and the drink is hot, but again not boiling (don't scald the milk).
- Serve in a mug topped with whipped cream or marshmallows if desired.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 354Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 29mgSodium: 162mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 2gSugar: 22gProtein: 12g
We try our best but cannot guarantee that nutrition information is 100% accurate.
i was excited when i saw this recipe :D
Maybe telling us what YOU put in: be a little more specific, and not quite so general about this recipe! It sounds great, but until I know what you usually put in, and what tastes good in combination, I’m not about to waste good chocolate on something that will end up tasting horrible!
Do you only use ONE herb at a time (makes sense to me) or do you combine them? I’m not trying to be negative, but this is just too general for me.
There were suggestions for flavor combinations in the article: dark chocolate and mint is particularly lovely. White chocolate and lavender is also delicious. The recipe is to give you permission to choose whatever flavors you’d like.
Right Smh
You can’t really mess up chocolate.. all of these sound divine! thanks for the ideas, I had never thought of this!
Sounds great! I’ll bet a chai mix would be tasty. Thanks for the encouragement to give it a try.
I wouldn’t use hyssop. It contains thujone which causes seizures. Unless you mean anise hyssop which is a different herb and makes a lovely herbal tea.
The recipe does say anise hyssop.
I prefer using fresh herbs from my garden – could I use fresh herbs instead of dried?
For sure – use fresh when you have them. Simply use 2 Tablespoons of fresh (chop and bruise them in the milk for best flavor) instead of 2 teaspoons of dried.
If I wanted to give this a try to give as gifts (to be cooked by recipient) what would you think would be the best way to package it to give? Herbs and chocolate separate with instructions? Thanks in advance! I love your ideas!
I would absolutely do it that way. Put the chocolate and herbs together in a little box or basket with an instruction card. If the person is drinking non-dairy milk you could even include a container of shelf-stable almond / coconut (or other type) milk.
White chocolate and lavender?! You’re a genius. We are definitely trying that one this Advent season. The reward for sitting still while we read Advent scriptures is that they get hot chocolate. This will up my game!
I never would have thought to do this. Thank you!
Enjoy!
These are great ideas! I’m not much for having lavender in my drinks, but some of the other herbs sounds great!
Thank you for this great idea! I tried the white chocolate and lavender and really liked it!
Oh I’m so glad to know it!
I LOVE lavender drinks but have never tried basil…I really want to try the white chocolate/basil combo! That’s the sort of unexpected thing I’m looking for. :) Do you think milk or dark chocolate would clash or overpower the flavor?
It would depend quality on the quality of the basil. Dried basil isn’t always the most flavorful but I would give it a try.
Thank you so much for this! It seems obvious,but I’ve never thought of infusing herbs in hot chocolate. And peppermint is my very favorite flavor to combine with chocolate. I can’t wait to make it!
Have you practiced using fresh mint, basil, or lavender?
I interested in your thoughts.
I tend to make this in winter when I don’t have fresh around – but I think it would be fine but triple the amount of fresh herb so 6 teaspoons instead of 2 teaspons of dried…