Sometimes I'm not in the mood for coffee or tea, particularly in the evening when I want to relax with a sweet, dessert-like drink without worrying about caffeine that will keep me up late at night. I usually go for a nice mug of hot chocolate, and Nestle's chocolate expertise makes their Carnation hot chocolate series a safe bet.



This is not cocoa powder, this is a pre-sweetened hot chocolate mix to which you simply add hot water and stir. In my opinion though, preparing it with hot water makes the drink a little thin, so I prefer to warm up some milk in a pan on the stove and mix it with the hot chocolate mix instead of water. That results in a richer, creamier chocolate drink. You could also heat milk in the microwave and then mix it with the powder, but I personally prefer stove-heated milk.



You may not want to drink this hot chocolate every night, because it is sweetened with sugar and could make you put on a couple pounds if you drink it all the time. But it does make a nice treat and is a good coffee alternative when you want to relax and wind down, rather than wake up and get down to business.





Buy Nestle's Dark Hot Chocolate

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters produce most of their coffee in whole bean and k-cup versions. What are K-cups? K-cups are single serving units of your favorite coffee that are used in Keurig coffee makers. Keurig is the leading maker of single cup coffee makers and they are a subsidiary of Green Mountain. So of course Green Mountain makes sure to sell its blends in k-cup form.



K-cups are usually sold in cases of 24 servings, or 96. If you buy a case of assorted flavors, you will receive fewer k-cups, 88 servings in the case of the large packs. They give you a little less coffee for your money, but when I first bought a keurig single cup brewer I ordered a case of 88 assorted k-cup flavors to discover which ones I liked best. It's worth paying a little more for the privelege of sampling.



For the record, my favorite flavours were the Breakfast Blend, and the French Roast K-cup. Green Mountain also makes k-cup teas and hot cocoa as well.



Buy Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups