Nescafé Dolce Gusto KitKat Hot Chocolate: One Pod, No Coffee

Unlike several of the chocolate and milk drinks in the Dolce Gusto range, the KitKat Hot Chocolate is a one-capsule build, so the box of sixteen gives sixteen cups. It is also designed to taste like the chocolate bar in a mug rather than like a dark drinking cocoa, and those two facts decide whether it belongs in your cupboard.

A chocolate bar, reworked as a drink

The KitKat name is licensed within one company, which owns both KitKat and Nescafé, and the goal is a drink that reads as that bar rather than as generic cocoa. The published ingredient list shows the approach: sugar leads, then whole milk powder and fat-reduced cocoa powder, followed by glucose syrup, starch, inulin, coconut oil, flavourings and salt. The cocoa powder is marked on the list as Rainforest Alliance Certified.

In the cup that means sweet, thick and creamy, with a proper foam instead of a skin and a milky, clean finish rather than a long bitter one. There is no coffee in it at all. Like any cocoa drink it holds a little natural caffeine, but nothing on the scale of a cup of coffee. The published allergen statement names milk.

Why a machine makes a smoother cup

Cocoa never fully dissolves, which is why a hot chocolate stirred with a spoon gets grainy towards the bottom of the mug. A Dolce Gusto machine pushes water through the capsule under pressure, driving the solids into the drink so it stays even to the last mouthful. The system was designed to vary water volume and pressure across a wide range, which is how one brewer can make a short coffee and this chocolate drink with only the capsule changed.

The one thing left in your hands is the amount of water, and it decides everything. The capsule holds a fixed dose, so running it long gives a weaker drink, not a bigger one. Halt the machine at the capsule's marked level, or let its chocolate setting judge the volume for you. Put water in the tank, never milk, because the milk is already in the capsule as powder. Warm the mug first, as cold china knocks the foam flat within a minute.

The mocha trick, and a biscuit for dunking

For a mocha, start with a Dolce Gusto coffee capsule in the mug and follow it with the chocolate one, so the chocolate and its foam finish the cup. Otherwise treat it as what it is: a cold-afternoon cup for anyone in the house who skips coffee, children included. It needs a Nescafé Dolce Gusto machine; a Nespresso or Tassimo will not take it and no adaptor bridges the systems, so check the machine before you order.

The cup is already sweet and smooth, so choose biscuits for texture. A milk chocolate digestive is the dependable one for dunking while the foam is still up, and a chunky chocolate chip cookie gives some bite against a drink the machine has made silky from top to bottom. When the whole family is sharing a cold afternoon, a sharing pack of classic biscuits saves any argument over the tin.

The packs we stock

• Nescafe Dolce Gusto KitKat Hot Chocolate (16 Servings), 16 Pods (barcode 8445291179257)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Nescafe Dolce Gusto KitKat Hot Chocolate (16 Servings), 16 Pods says it contains milk. Read the current 16 pod KitKat box before buying; Nescafé can change the recipe and what it says about milk.

Ingredients, as published: Sugar, Whole Milk Powder (22.4%), Fat-Reduced Cocoa Powder (16.2%) (Fat-reduced Cocoa Powder¹ (15.4%), Emulsifier (Lecithins)), Glucose Syrup, Starch, Inulin, Coconut Oil, Flavourings, Salt, Butteroil (Milk), ¹Rainforest Alliance Certified.

Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The KitKat pod box you hold settles it.

What to eat with it

• McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: a sturdy milk chocolate biscuit to dunk while the foam on the cup is still standing.
• Lu Le Petit Cookie with Chunky Rich Chocolate Chips, 184g: chunky chips add bite beside a drink the machine has made smooth to the last mouthful.
• Border Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: a sharing pack to pass round the table on a family hot-chocolate afternoon.

Elsewhere in the Nescafé range

• Nescafe Azera Americano Decaff Instant Coffee, 90g
• Nescafe Azera Americano Instant Coffee, 140g
• Nescafe Azera Americano Intense Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 140g
• Nescafe Azera Decaf Americano Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 135g
• Nescafe Cappuccino Decaf Unsweetened Taste Instant Coffee Sachets, 7 Sachets 105g
• Nescafe Cappuccino Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets

The full range is on the Nescafé brand page.

FAQ

How many drinks are in a box of KitKat Hot Chocolate pods? Sixteen. It is a one-capsule drink, so each of the sixteen pods makes one cup.

Can I make a mocha with KitKat Hot Chocolate pods? Yes. There is no coffee in the capsule itself, so brew a Dolce Gusto coffee capsule into the mug first and run this one over it.

Should I put milk in the water tank? No, only water. The capsule already carries its milk as powder, and pouring milk into the tank fouls the machine without making anything richer.

Why did my KitKat hot chocolate come out thin? It was almost certainly run too long. Stop at the mark on the capsule, because extra water only dilutes a fixed dose.

Is the cocoa in KitKat Hot Chocolate certified? The published ingredient list marks the fat-reduced cocoa powder as Rainforest Alliance Certified, and it names milk as an allergen. Check the current box, as recipes are revised from time to time.

Curator's note: Warm the mug under the hot tap first, then hand it to whoever in the house does not drink coffee. On a cold afternoon it does exactly what it promises, and that is enough. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Nescafé Dolce Gusto KitKat Hot Chocolate: One Pod, No Coffee

More from the tea wiki

• Nescafé: The Instant Coffee Benchmark
• Tea vs Coffee: Taste, Caffeine and Switching
• Caffeine in Tea
• Tea vs Coffee
• Tea for Coffee Drinkers: Where to Start
• Chai vs Coffee
• Hot Chocolate UK: Buying It Well

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