Easy Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe – Just Add Water

This homemade hot cocoa mix recipe is quick to make and uses only four simple pantry ingredients for a rich, chocolatey drink anytime. Just add water for a cozy cup that’s wonderful for cold days, gifting in jars, or keeping on hand for your family. It’s an easy, real food recipe that you’ll love for holidays, camping, after sledding, or for sipping around an outdoor fire.

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This is another wonderful Pantry Basic – recipes of foods we typically think of as only store bought, but that are actually better tasting, and of course better for you when you make them yourself. 

I’m pretty sure many of us have some hot cocoa mix in a corner of our pantries. Even if we don’t drink it ourselves, it’s nice to have on hand for fun winter moments (how can you not have hot chocolate after playing in the snow?), holidays, or camping. And I like to be able to offer it for any family or friends who enjoy hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea.

I never even thought about it much when I bought it until I started reading ingredient labels (of course). Have you ever looked to see what’s in hot chocolate mixes? I was surprised at the length of the list, which is what drove me to search for a recipe for a homemade hot cocoa mix.

For reference, here’s the ingredients from the Swiss Miss brand just-add-water hot cocoa:

sugar, modified whey, cocoa (processed with alkali), hydrogenated coconut oil, nonfat milk, calcium carbonate, less than 2% of: salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglyderides, artificial flavor, carrageenan.

Hmmm, doesn’t sound too yummy, does it?

(By the way, calcium carbonate is ground up shells added for calcium, dipotassium phosphate is water soluble salt “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA, and the others are all emulsifiers and thickeners we can do without.)

The recipe I based what has become our favorite homemade hot cocoa on came from Brian’s Kansas grandmother’s old Farm Journal Cookbook that’s so well-used the binding is coming apart in places. It was first published in 1959 and we inherited the revised edition from 1972. It’s become a treasure trove for me of good cooking from scratch recipes that I can adapt.

The base recipe is just four simple ingredients most of us have in our cupboards. I slightly adapted it for our tastes (decreasing the sugar and upping the cocoa a bit) and it was a hit with my kids!

What type of cocoa mix is this recipe?

There are actually two types of hot cocoa mixes you can make:

1. One that includes powdered milk, so that you only have to add boiling water to it.
2. The other consists of just the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt and you’d add this to warmed milk.

The most popular seems to be the mix that includes the milk, so that you can take it anywhere and make it with just water. This was the type of mix I wanted so that it would be convenient for camping and super easy to make for anyone wanting hot chocolate.

TIP: Don’t need the convenience of a mix? Then you’ll want to make a super simple hot chocolate by adding another favorite pantry basic, homemade chocolate syrup, to hot milk and stirring it together – it’s so easy! Add about 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup to a cup of milk (8 ounces), stir and heat. Adjust the amount of syrup to your preferences.

But when you need a mix for hot chocolate on the go, this easy hot cocoa mix recipe makes a great cup of cocoa.

Recipe Ingredients

I love picturing the ingredients for super easy recipes like this – it makes it so clear how simple even convenience food can be, right? You’ll need:

• Dried Milk Powder: Use whatever you can find. Typically in stores it’s nonfat dry milk, but whole milk powder or even a low-fat milk powder will make an even richer cocoa. (The milk powder is key to this just-add-water mix, if you don’t want to use it, go with the chocolate syrup-hot milk option from above.) NEED DAIRY FREE? Try Dry Goat Milk Powder (if only avoiding cows milk), Soy Powder, or Coconut Milk Powder, though I’d make a small test batch first to see if you like it.

BIG Reader Tip! Jennifer said she “learned the hard way” when measuring powdered milk to always fluff it up and spoon it into your measuring cup as some brands tend to compress during transport and you’ll end up with a rancid taste rather than creamy.

• Cocoa Powder: You can use 1/2 cup regular cocoa powder (I no longer recommend 1/3 cup as I previously did, 1/2 cup gives more chocolate flavor consistently). Want a darker cocoa powder with more chocolaty flavor? Try a quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder that has a darker color and a smoother, milder flavor.
• Sugar: Both regular or powdered work, but be aware that powdered sugar has anti-caking ingredients which may give an “off” taste. I only use regular sugar and simply blend it up longer.
• Salt: Just a little bit for depth of flavor, which is included in store-bought, too.

So the next time you are at the store and are tempted by those cocoa mixes on the shelf, remember the FOUR ingredients in this picture. That’s all you need – so buy them instead if you don’t have them already and make yourself a stash of cocoa mix!

Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe Video

How to Make Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

TIP: Using a blender is the key to getting a smooth mix like the commercial mixes. This is the blender I have and it works great (and didn’t cost $400-500 dollars, lol).

3. Store in an airtight glass jar. I like to store it with a 1/4 cup (or 1/3 or 1/2 cup if you prefer) scoop so that it’s ready to make when we are.

Storage

This mix will last indefinitely on the shelf, but I suggest using within a year for the best results.

How to make hot chocolate with the mix

1/4 to 1/2 cup = 1 packet of commercial mix. You can, of course, use more or less according to your tastes! We like 1/4 to 1/3 and a number of commenters prefer 1/2 cup of mix.

1. In a regular size mug, add 1/4 (or 1/3 or 1/2) cup cocoa mix and pour boiling water over.
2. Stir for a few minutes before drinking.
3. Add marshmallows or whipped cream to make it even better!

Reader Variations

Over the years many people have written with their additions and substitutions – here are some of the best:

• Add 3/4 cup of Ghirardelli premium white chips and a mix of powdered sugar/reg sugar.
• Used vanilla or others extracts along with cinnamon nutmeg or clove (for the health benefits) gives a variety of flavors.
• Added powdered French vanilla creamer (regular or no sugar).
• If you make it with whey powder and artificial sweetener, it’s very low carb!
• You use powdered soy milk if you are lactose intolerant.

I hope you love this homemade hot cocoa mix – if you make it, be sure to leave a recipe rating and any variations you made to let me know!

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• See all the Pantry Basic Recipes here!

This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in February 2009 and updated in 2019.

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