hot cocoa conundrum
Back when I was wee, my mama used to make big batches of hot chocolate mix to get our family through the winter. It was something like this, based on powdered milk and Nestle Quik, with Cremora and powdered sugar for extra richness. Knowing my overworked, thrifty, and somewhat picky mom like I do, there are only a few reasons I can think of for doing this:
1. if it was healthier than Swiss Miss
2. if it tasted better than Swiss Miss
3. if it was cheaper than Swiss Miss
(I'm not including "for the fun of it", though that or "out of habit" might be the answer)
There's no actual cocoa in that recipe (only the Quik) so I can't imagine it being much more flavorful, and non-dairy creamer has approximately equivalent weird stuff to Swiss Miss, primarily things like corn syrup solids, mono- and di-gylcerides, coconut (etc) oil, carageenan, soy lecithin, etc. so that pretty much rules out options 1 & 2, and my sainted mom is nothing if not frugal. My basic assumption all these years was that this was the cheap substitute.
This evening, I went to the store thinking I'd get some ingredients and make a big match of cheap hot chocolate.
Powdered Milk $4-$5.50/lb depending on if I got way more than I needed or not.
non-dairy creamer (house brand) $2.50/lb (Cremora $3.50/lb)
Nestle Quik $3.20/lb
powdered sugar $1/lb
Swiss Miss in a tub (not packets) $2.40/lb
So instead, I came home with a tub of Swiss Miss.
1. if it was healthier than Swiss Miss
2. if it tasted better than Swiss Miss
3. if it was cheaper than Swiss Miss
(I'm not including "for the fun of it", though that or "out of habit" might be the answer)
There's no actual cocoa in that recipe (only the Quik) so I can't imagine it being much more flavorful, and non-dairy creamer has approximately equivalent weird stuff to Swiss Miss, primarily things like corn syrup solids, mono- and di-gylcerides, coconut (etc) oil, carageenan, soy lecithin, etc. so that pretty much rules out options 1 & 2, and my sainted mom is nothing if not frugal. My basic assumption all these years was that this was the cheap substitute.
This evening, I went to the store thinking I'd get some ingredients and make a big match of cheap hot chocolate.
Powdered Milk $4-$5.50/lb depending on if I got way more than I needed or not.
non-dairy creamer (house brand) $2.50/lb (Cremora $3.50/lb)
Nestle Quik $3.20/lb
powdered sugar $1/lb
Swiss Miss in a tub (not packets) $2.40/lb
So instead, I came home with a tub of Swiss Miss.