When I woke up this morning to freezing cold temperatures and rain I was in high hopes that school would be cancelled. Unfortunately, there was school and my mom dropped me off in the cold rainy weather. I made it through the day and when I got home it was still cold and it was raining again. The weather app on my phone said to expect freezing temperatures through the night. Ugh. I needed to warm up and stop shivering. In an instant I knew the perfect remedy. Hot chocolate! I went to the cupboard and found not one, not two, but three different kinds of hot chocolate. I decided to experiment.

The three kinds of hot chocolate I found were HEB Hot Cocoa, Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa, and Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa. I decided to try each kind to see which one tasted the best. I made one cup of each kind and used the same amount of water for each cup. First, I tasted the HEB Hot Cocoa. It was full of chocolatey goodness and sweet, but not sickening sweet. I rated it a 9 out of 10.

Next, I tasted the Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa. It was chocolatey, but not as chocolatey as the HEB brand. A little watery even. I wondered what was supposed to make this one so premium? I looked at the box and that was the moment I realized my mistake. The directions clearly stated to make it with hot milk. Okay. Maybe it would have been more premium if I had made it with milk instead of water. I rated it 7 out of 10 even though it would probably be better if it was made with milk, but it was the last packet and I wanted something that was easy to make so it lost points there. Next, I tried the Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa and all 9,000 taste buds were quickly disappointed. It was not chocolatey and it basically tasted like sugar water. No wonder there was just one packet missing from the box. No one wanted to drink it. I did my mom a favor and threw the rest of the Swiss Miss packets in the garbage. I didn’t even bother to give Swiss Miss a rating. It was the worst.

Out of the three kinds of hot chocolate that I tried the HEB Hot Cocoa brand was the winner. The Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cocoa could have tasted even better if I had followed the directions and made it with milk, but we all know we want a hot chocolate that is easy and fast to make when we come in from the cold. After experimenting with the different kinds of hot chocolate I finished off the cup of the HEB brand and finally had stopped shivering. It was a warm way to end what started out as a very cold day.