Twinings Swiss Chocolate Drink

 

Sweet, easy drinking, some chocolate flavour, a little wishy-washy. It's a pleasant drink, but lacks character and depth of flavour, and much of the pleasure is carried by the sugar rather than the chocolate. This is an instant chocolate but without the milk powder, so you have to add your own milk. If you're doing that, you might as well have a proper hot chocolate and add your own preferred level and type of sweetness. 

We tried blending this with an instant hot chocolate, but the result of that was to weaken the instant hot chocolate, even though made with all milk,  so the result was not good. When blended with proper hot chocolate there is greater depth of flavour and body, but a lot of hot chocolate has to be added. 

Current cost is around £4 for 350g, which, given that you have to add your own milk, and the finished product is a bit wimpy, doesn't represent good value for money. 

But it's each to their own, and some may like  its sweet, easy drinking nature. 

Website: Twinings Swiss Chocolate Drink 

Ingredients: Sugar, fat-reduced cocoa powder (18%), glucose, chocolate (7%) (sugar, cocoa mass, fat-reduced cocoa powder, flavouring vanillin), mineral dicalcium phosphate, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), flavouring vanillin, salt.

Date: July 2021   Score: 4 

***

Twinings

Sainsbury's Cocoa

 

Drunk by itself Sainsbury's Cocoa is a little crude and harsh. It is drinkable and moderately interesting, but, for us, benefits from adding something, such as sugar, honey, cream, or a spoon or two of instant chocolate. It's not one we'd be inclined to buy again. 

Date: June 2021   Score: 4 

Sainsbury's own label

Poulain Grand Arome 32% De Cacao

Classic French chocolate with the brand image of the dancing foal (the company name, Poulain, is French for foal). The company was founded by Victor-Auguste Poulain in 1893, who had been making chocolate products since 1848. Poulain drinking chocolate has been a favourite breakfast drink in France since the 1940s. 
 

Ingredients

It's a milky sweet chocolate drink. Not hugely chocolatey, but certainly sweet and easy drinking. We like it. 

Date: May 2021   Score: 7 

Galaxy Instant Hot Chocolate

 

I made this with 2/3rds hot water and 1/3rd cold milk. Perfect. A smooth chocolatey drink which does taste of Galaxy. Nice one. I'd go for this again. 


Date: April 2021    Score: 6  

Mokate Hot Chocolate Drink Salted Caramel

 

The creamy froth, chocolate sprinkles, and Nice biscuit do not come with the packet! The mug on the right is what the product looks like when made up as directed. 

This is a cheap, convenient, and tasty little instant chocolate drink. The little sachets are good to take when staying a night or two in hotels which give you a kettle, but only tea or coffee sachets. You can also use them at home, though I prefer the flexibility, the economy, and the more environmentally friendly larger containers. Not sure, though, if Mokate do the standard containers - all Mokate products I've had in the past have been in sachet form. 

This is not a top quality product, but it is tasty and quite drinkable. 


Date: April 2021    Score: 4 

Horlicks

 

Horlicks is awesome. Sweet, malty, milky goodness.  

Horlicks is a malted milk drink. Malted milk was devised by James Horlicks in the 1860s in England as an infant food supplement, but had no success marketing, so moved to America to join his brother where they developed the idea, and in 1873 formed the Horlicks company. Though intended as infant formula, it found success as a nutritional food for explorers, and was taken to the South Pole, where a range of mountains is called Horlicks Mountains.  The formula was used to create Malted Milk biscuits, launched malt (or soda) shops, and became hugely popular in the UK as an evening drink at home and in hospital. 

Date: April 2021    Score: 9 

Ovaltine Chocolate Light

 

Ovaltine is a milky barley malt drink that is traditionally drunk in the evening. It looks good, tastes good, and by golly it does you good (to borrow a Mackeson advertising slogan). It was promoted with images of health and goodness. I worked for a while at the Ovaltine factory in Kings Langley opposite the Ovaltine dairy farm. These days it's a housing estate, though they have retained the art deco frontage.  

The Ovaltine factory and farms 
in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire

As it is today, converted into flats,
with just the facade remaining.

Though I had always assumed it was a a British product (and indeed it has been owned by a British firm Associated British Foods (ABF) since 2002) it was developed and owned by a Swiss firm, and since the closure of the Kings Langley factory in 2002 when it was taken over by ABF production of European Ovaltine has returned to Switzerland.   There are different versions of Ovaltine (or Ovomaltine as it was originally named, and is still called in many parts of the world); originally it contained egg, and it still does in many parts of the world, but not in the UK. Some versions contain cocoa, some don't, and some contain extra cocoa. This is a UK version which contains more cocoa than the standard British Ovaltine. ABF also own Primark and Twinning's. 

This can be made hot or cold. It can be made with water or milk, or a mix of both. And, of course, it can be blended with other cocoa or hot chocolate products (we like to play around and experiment!). 

We like this. A lot. Not a huge chocolate flavour, so not really for hot chocolate enthusiasts. It has a wonderful malt flavour. I like malt. The balance between the malt and the cocoa, for me, is nicely judged so the flavours complement each other, with no one dominating. 


Make with milk or part milk for an extra smooth creamy indulgent experience. 

Nice one! 


Date: Lockdown Feb 2021   Score: 8