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Chocolaty, creamy and extra-caffeinated. Photo by Raphotography | IST. |
| WHAT IT IS: Instant hot chocolate with as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. |
| WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: There’s an impeccable balance of tangy, heat and a bit of sweet. |
WHY WE LOVE IT: This versatile condiment can be used on just about anything. It’s 10 calories per tablespoon and fat-free. |
| WHERE TO BUY IT: Amazon.com. A 50-packet box is $29.50. |
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Keep packages in your bag, desk drawer, glove compartment or locker. Photo courtesy COGO.
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COGO Caffeinated Hot Chocolate
If you need a caffeine jolt but don’t like coffee (or the heartburn some people get from it), we have a delicious solution.
COGO extra-caffeinated hot chocolate has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. We’ve had caffeinated water and double-caffeinated coffee and caffeinated mints, but COGO is the first hot chocolate or cocoa we’ve come across.
A six-ounce cup of COCO has as much caffeine as an eight-ounce cup of coffee: 98g of caffeine, compared to 5g in a typical cup of hot chocolate.
And it’s delicious: chocolaty and creamy, a far higher-quality product than supermarket brands. There’s more chocolate intensity, more creaminess (no added milk needed) and no cloying sweetness.*
Tear open an individual packet, add six ounces of hot water, and you’ve got an instant morning or afternoon pick-me-up (or an aid to staying up, if that’s your goal, or you need a gift for a college student). It’s easy to keep packets at work, in your gym bag or glove compartment.
Ingredients & Calories
A six-ounce cup of prepared hot chocolate has 120 calories, 20 from fat. There’s no cholesterol, 210 mg sodium and 21 g total carbohydrate, including 1 g of dietary fiber (the rest is sugar). Allergy alert: The product contains milk and soy.
We pray that the product is very successful, so the manufacturers come up with a sugar-free version. Because we could drink COCO all day—but at 19g of sugar per cup, we need to put the brakes on.
The Difference Between Cocoa & Hot
Chocolate
Cocoa is technically the powdered product and the drink made from it; most of the cocoa butter from the chocolate has been pressed out, making it less rich than hot chocolate.
By contrast, hot chocolate, also known as drinking chocolate, contains all the cocoa butter. Some deluxe brands even add extra cocoa butter for richness and mouthfeel. The product is sold as shaved chocolate or tiny chocolate bits.
Many people use the terms interchangeably, but that isn’t accurate. Here’s more about the different types of cocoa and hot chocolate.
— Karen Hochman |
