Chocolate Coffee (Hot Cafe Mocha)

Why you’ll love this hot chocolate coffee recipe

• It is the perfect hot drink to cozy up with on a cool night. 
• You can make this chocolate coffee recipe as strong and as sweet as you like.
• Skipping high end coffee shops and making this at-home version will save you money. 
• It’s an easy recipe that only requires a handful of simple ingredients. 
• You can use decaf coffee if you want to enjoy a delicious cafe mocha drink later in the day. 

Can you mix chocolate into coffee?

Absolutely, coffee and chocolate go perfectly together. Not only can you mix chocolate into coffee drinks, you can also use coffee in chocolate desserts to enhance the flavor. 

Ingredients

See recipe card for exact amounts to make a large batch or one cup.

Ingredient Notes

Coffee – I use regular coffee and brew it about twice as strong as we do our morning coffee. 

Milk – we use whole milk most of the time. You can use any type you like, 1% milk, 2% milk or skim milk will be fine. Non-dairy milk such as coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, or cashew milk can be used. 

Cocoa – unsweetened cocoa powder is what we like to use. It can be found on the baking aisle of the grocery store.

Sugar – we use regular granulated sugar. You can use your favorite sugar substitute. 

Whipped Topping – I like Reddi Wip because it is so convenient. You can use heavy cream or whipping cream to make homemade whipped cream. Alton Brown has an easy recipe over at Food Network if you want to make it yourself. 

How to make this simple recipe

1.  Pour coffee, milk, cocoa powder and sugar into a large saucepan or Dutch oven. 
2. Heat over medium heat stirring occasionally until it is hot. 
3. Pour into coffee mugs and top with whipped cream.  

Recipe Notes – warm over medium heat so you don’t scorch the milk, also because milk tends to boil over quickly. We like the bittersweet chocolate flavor so this is a relatively small amount of sugar, add more if you want it a little (or a lot) sweeter.

How to make iced chocolate coffee

1. Make the recipe as directed, allow to cool and then refrigerate for a couple of hours, serve over ice. 
2. Garnish just like you would hot chocolate coffee.

Garnish ideas

We like to garnish our chocolate coffee a few different ways, below are our favorite.

• A dusting of cocoa powder – just put a little in a mesh strainer and shake it as you hold it over the cup.
• Chocolate syrup –  just drizzle a little on the whipped cream, right out of the bottle.
• Chocolate sauce – to make this really easy you can buy store bought in white chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate. There are usually a couple of different brands on the aisle with the coffee. 
• Chocolate shavings – just use a knife or potato peeler to shave some off of your favorite chocolate bar.
• Chocolate chips – mini chips work great or chop up the regular size if that’s what you have. 
• Peppermint candy – Starlite mints or a candy cane work great, just put some in a zip top bag and use a meat mallet to gently crush them. 

Variation

We use ground coffee but you could use regular instant coffee or decaf instant coffee if that is what you prefer. Just add the amount of instant coffee granules and water to the pot instead of brewed coffee, then proceed with the recipe. I would still make it stronger than I would if I was going to drink it with milk only.