Review: Cold Stone Creamery Smooth Cravings.

Recently, Cold Stone Creamery has expanded their market to hot cocoa consumers. Armed with a coupon in hand, I searched for the cocoa in the  supermarket and found them a few weeks after clipping my coupon. I am assuming these hot cocoa mixes are new or at least recent releases. I picked up a box of the dark chocolate and was excited to try it. With coupon, the cocoa cost a measly $1. They also have 2 other varieties, Rich Milk Chocolate and Marshmallow.

Each box has 8 envelopes weighing 1.25 oz each. There are 140 calories when mixed with water and 220 calories when mixed with 3/4 cup of 2% milk. This is only a bit higher than Swiss Miss' hot cocoa mix with marshmallows which has 120 calories when mixed with water and 210 calories when mixed with 2% milk. Overall, it's not a terrible winter treat.

I microwaved my 3/4 cup of milk and poured the mix in. My first thoughts when I smelled the mix was of bittersweet chocolate. This made me hopeful for a nice, rich dark chocolate taste. Unfortunately, Cold Stone did not deliver on the dark chocolate taste. My first sip left me wondering if I was drinking milk chocolate hot cocoa or dark chocolate hot cocoa. Upon further consideration the cocoa was a bit richer than your normal variety cocoa but not by much. The cocoa also seems a bit thicker than normal but this just could be me not being used to drinking cocoa with milk instead of water. Overall, I wouldn't call this dark chocolate by any stretch. I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for something richer than the garden variety cocoa mix. This was so-so but probably not worth the buy if you already have cocoa at home.


I give this two out of five stars.