Homemade Chocolate Milk with Cocoa Syrup
Inspired by techniques from NYT Cooking and Serious Eats.
Sugar, salt and water are boiled, cocoa is whisked in, chopped chocolate and vanilla are melted through, and the cooled syrup is stirred into cold milk.
Always check the labels of the products you use.
Method
- 1
Boil the syrup. Put the sugar, salt and water in the saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat, whisking until the sugar dissolves. Whisk in the cocoa until completely smooth, then take the pan off the heat.
- 2
Melt the chocolate. Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and glossy, then whisk in the vanilla.
- 3
Cool. Pour into the jar and leave until it reaches room temperature, about 30 minutes. To hurry it, stand the jar in a bowl of iced water and stir. You will have about 140 ml.
- 4
Mix. For each glass, stir 2 tbsp (30 ml) of syrup into 240 ml cold milk until evenly brown. Taste and add a little more syrup if you like.
Storage
The syrup keeps in a closed jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Mixed chocolate milk is best drunk the same day. Cool leftovers in a shallow container and refrigerate within 2 hours (within 1 hour on a day above 32°C).
EU nutrition claims
- Source of protein: 3.6 g protein per 100 kcal, about 14% of energy (needs ≥ 12%)
- Low salt: 0.19 g salt per 100 ml (limit ≤ 0.3 g)
Per 100 ml of the finished dish, worked out from the nutrition per serving and the lowest likely cooked weight (about 199 ml a serving), so the true values are, if anything, lower. Thresholds from the Annex to EU Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. How we decide
Caffeine · Free sugars
- Per serving: about 7–15 mg caffeine (serving: 1 glass). Source: per serving 5 g cocoa × USDA FDC SR Legacy #169593 (cocoa powder, 230 mg/100 g) or #169594 (Dutch-processed cocoa, 78 mg/100 g), plus 3.75 g unsweetened chocolate × #167568 (80 mg/100 g); the lower figure is for Dutch-processed cocoa.
- Scaling: making more servings does not change the caffeine in each serving; what counts is how many servings you drink in a day. 1 serving: 7–15 mg · 2 servings: 14–30 mg · 3 servings: 21–45 mg · 4 servings: 28–60 mg.
- General guideline: EFSA Scientific Opinion on the safety of caffeine (2015): for healthy adults, up to 200 mg in a single dose and up to 400 mg per day do not raise safety concerns. 1 serving = 2–4 % of 400 mg. EFSA
18.8 g per serving
37.6 % of the 50 g daily maximum · 75.2 % of the ideal 25 g
Free sugars under 50 g a day, ideally about 25 g, based on WHO free-sugar guidance (not endorsed by WHO). The share shown is the share of one serving. WHO
Equipment
- small saucepan
- whisk
- heatproof jar
- long spoon
- 4 glasses
Nutrition per serving (estimated values)
| Per serving | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 260 kcal |
| Protein | 9.3 g |
| Carbohydrate | 34.6 g |
| of which sugars | 31.4 g |
| of which free sugars | 18.8 g |
| Fat | 10.7 g |
| of which saturates | 6.2 g |
| Fibre | 2.5 g |
| Salt | 0.37 g |
Protein per 100 kcal
3.6 g High Protein needs ≥ 5 g (20% of energy)
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient values
