Dan’s Hot Chocolate cocktail recipe

Your childhood favourite is all grown up – it may as well be filing its own taxes. This adult hot chocolate is rich, velvety and spiced; exactly what you want on a cold winter’s night. Add in re-runs of Friends and a comfy blankie and you’re beyond sorted. There’s no better way to spend a chilly evening. Just add marshmallows. 

Melting diced milk chocolate makes this hot chocolate super smooth, with the cocoa powder bringing an extra richness to the drink. A touch of spice from the bay leaf and cloves keeps things interesting, while the vodka adds subtle warmth and flavours to the mix. It’s a simple cocktail to make and you can play with the ingredients to suit your tastes. Prefer more chocolate? Go for it. Love the taste of cloves? Add a few more.

If Dan’s Hot Chocolate sounds like a winner to you, odds are you’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth. Lucky for you, we have plenty of other chocolate cocktails to help scratch the itch, but this easy cocktail recipe might just lead the pack. 

It’s tough to improve a classic hot chocolate, but there are plenty of ways to tweak it to suit your tastes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of caramel, choc-mint, hazelnut or almond – you can simply purchase the chocolate block of your choice and dice it for the recipe, adding a subtly different flavour to the mix. The same goes for dark chocolate, at whatever cocoa percentage you wish, which will lessen the overall sweetness. 

Dairy-free drinkers don’t have to miss out, either. Switch out cow milk for soy, oat or almond, then buy a block of dark chocolate (ensuring it's a dairy-free brand). The cocoa powder is, or should be, dairy-free too, so there’s no need to miss out. And if you’re after a mocktail? That’s easy – just leave the vodka out!