ChocNut vs ChocNut: A Review

There’s this thing about the cold(ish) weather and a warm drink. Tea, coffee, or for the review of the day: hot chocolate. There is no combination like any other. Throw in some childhood regression, a blanket, and a good book (in my case, a stack of pediatrics topics), you’re pretty much set.

What brought me to this review is pretty simple. There’s this post that’s been going around Facebook that pretty much advertised that there’s an instant ChocNut powdered drink out on retail right now. With an epiphany to behold straight from my childhood, I sought this myth out. Turns out, it was an easy find. Found some down the street at the nearby Ho-Land Chinese Deli. It was P10 a packet, and luckily for a calorie counter like me, it was 65 cal a drink.

Fortunately enough, there was a party last Friday which led to a breakfast meet up the next morning. Decided to prep the drink up in my tumbler and brought it to McD’s with the rest of the group. Suffice to say though, it was sort of not what I expected.

As kid growing up with the those choco-nutty mini bricks as staple sweet, it was sort of disappointing. Rather, it tasted nothing at all like ChocNut. There was not a hint of peanut nor that hit of sugar that has you wanting another one of those tiny cubes (mini bricks?). It was  far from what I had in mind it would be, nostalgia and all.

However, as a standalone hot chocolate drink it does hold up pretty well with Milo and McD’s own brand of hot chocolate. I must admit, it does taste remarkably similar to McDonald’s recipe. In a pinch for a hot chocolate craving it might actually be a good save. P10 a packet isn’t all that expensive, albeit a little more than what you would pay, for say, Milo.

So after that revelation, I took the advice of a comment I saw in a Facebook post. One of the members of a group I’m in said he used to use the actual bricks and mixed them with hot milk as kid. Having some stock of the sweet at home, I decided why not and gave it a try. Grabbed some nonfat milk (250ml) from the fridge, steamed it in a sauce pan, and added 2 cubes of ChocNut.

I don’t think I stepped onto another plane of existence, but it was a good revelation nonetheless. I actually think this is what I had in mind when I bought those packets from the deli. The taste of the candy itself holds well and blends smoothly into the steamed milk, which was a nice find considering they did clump initially. A simple version of the local batirol comes into mind with the consistency and taste that had resulted from this quick experiment. Granted, there’s a little step of effort with steaming the milk. It was worth it though, since there wasn’t that albumin film that formed on the top if you let the drink stand long enough.

If you would ask me to pick between the two drinks? I’d obviously go for the latter. For convenience’s sake though, I honestly say the powder would do, but don’t expect anything special.

Final score:

ChocNut Powder: 2.7/5

ChocNut (ala brick): 3.5/5