Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe

Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe

Today we’re recreating the Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe! I’m a huge fan of the frozen version of this popular holiday hot drink. Why would you freeze hot chocolate? It isn’t winter, and I like my hot chocolate to give me that warm and fuzzy feeling. If this was your initial thought, not to fret! This isn’t literally frozen hot chocolate. It’s more of a hot chocolate slush … or somewhere between a frappuccino and an iced chocolate drink! It’s an easy recipe and a delicious drink in the summer when you’re craving for something sweet.

Usually, when sugar cravings hit and it’s way too hot and humid out to be eating three donuts in one sitting, I find myself wanting to make iced drinks (cue the grade school lemonade stands). A lot of the sweet treats I’ll find are peaches, mangoes, berries, watermelon and summer fruits. Even the drinks I think of are usually things like lemonade, cranberry juice, fruit punch … all fruity things! But SOMETIMES I just don’t want anything fruity! But I still want a cold and refreshing drink.

That’s where THIS recipe comes in. Aaaallll the cocoa flavor of a hot chocolate in the winter – I do love my chocolate, and there’s not many winter desserts I crave for in the summer. Personally, I’ve never felt like eating a chocolate pie, cake, or any of those things when July and August hit. But frozen chocolate recipes are something I can get behind.

Cocoa Powder or Melted Chocolate?

So for many hot chocolate and frozen hot chocolate recipes, I’ve seen people using melted chocolate. Actually, this is true for many chocolate recipes in general. For me, I usually only keep cacao powder rather than blocks of chocolate at home. But aside from that, I usually avoid using melted chocolate in recipes if I don’t have to. I feel like cacao powder gives the same flavor and is cheaper and easier to buy the raw powder in bulk, rather than one bar of expensive vegan chocolate.

Not to mention, if you’re on a low-fat diet, it’s more convenient to have cacao powder rather than a chocolate bar with cocoa in it. So we’re going to be using cacao powder, but you could still substitute a few squares of melted dark chocolate if you’d like. You really can’t go wrong mixing milk, chocolate, ice and sugar, so feel free to mix things around to suit your taste.

Why You’ll Love This Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe

Starbucks Remake: I LOVE Starbucks. The aroma of their dark roast coffee, the sound of people lining up to get their morning java, all their holiday drinks in the red cups, not to mention the Starbucks secret menu they have going on (I’ve tried multiple drinks from that as well). I don’t necessarily love paying $7 for a coffee shop drink on a regular basis (or a lot of sugar in my drinks, like vanilla syrup, mocha sauce or peppermint syrup among the myriad other syrups they use). However, Starbucks has dominated the coffee world for as long as I can remember. Once I got a coffee machine myself, making copycat drinks became a great way for me to experiment with my machine (and to try out new recipes for you guys)!

Winter Drinks Turned Summer: The classic hot chocolate drink to grace us every holiday season is now transformed into a chilled version that is just as good on hot summer days as hot chocolate is on a snow and cold day in December.

Rich in Chocolate … and Healthy!: My sweet tooth was extra-satisfied with this drink, but I should also mention that raw cacao is full of vitamins and minerals, ranging from iron to vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, E and Pantothenic acid! Chocolate lovers can rejoice, because having cacao every day has many benefits. (Of course, not with multiple grams of sugar added …)

Substitutions

Oat Milk Ice Cubes: Freezing oat milk into ice cubes helps the creaminess SO much. Specifically freezing it, not just using refrigerated oat milk. You can use any brand, but usually the brands found in the fridge are creamier. There are shelf-stable boxes too, and they’re more watery from what I’ve seen. Starbucks would probably use whole milk or skim milk for their dairy-based drink. However, the best choice for a creamy vegan milk would be oat milk or even full-fat canned coconut milk or coconut cream. The only reason I didn’t use canned coconut milk was because the drink may taste coconut-ty.

Cacao Powder: Cacao powder is a healthier version of cocoa powder and adds the chocolate flavor. If you have a favorite hot chocolate mix, feel free to use that instead of the cacao. Hot cocoa mix already have sugar added, so you can forego the extra sweetener if desired.

Sweetener: Use any sweetener you’d like. Some sweeteners I can think of include pure maple syrup, agave, xylitol, monkfruit, stevia, coconut sugar, date sugar, or even just white or brown sugar.

Whipped Cream: Optional, but I used it as you can see in the pictures. I use Gay Lea’s brand of Coconut Whipped Cream. It also comes out of a can, just like whipped cream used to! It does have a coconut taste to it, but it’s one of the best options I have found. I’m sure there are also other brands making aerosol can whip cream, but I haven’t run across any in local stores. Ordering other brands online is more expensive, so it just depends what you have access to in your area.

Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe Notes

• Top the drink with chocolate curls for an elevated drink! You can easily make curls using a potato peeler. Check out how here!
• Make a hot cocoa cold brew by replacing some of the plant based milk with cold brew instead! Alternatively, add in mocha syrup (or maybe a white mocha sauce if you’re extra fancy and keep coffee shop drink syrups on hand).
• To make an ice cream float, add a scoop of ice cream on top of the drink, rather than whipped cream! Top with a caramel drizzle or chocolate drizzle (or both) for the ultimate tasty treat!
• To make it even more chocolate-y, use chocolate milk instead of regular milk.
• Depending on the type of chocolate you want to drizzle on top (if any), you have a few options between dark, milk or white. Many brands of dark chocolate are already vegan, but you can check the ingredients list to make sure. Most milk chocolate and white chocolate are not vegan. However, there are companies that make (albeit more expensive) vegan milk/white chocolate bars. These are available in many supermarkets, but depends where you live!

More Starbucks Inspired Recipes You’ll Love

Iced Chocolate Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso

Java Chip Frappuccino

Iced Peppermint Mocha

Peppermint Mocha

Iced White Hot Chocolate Mocha

Banana Cream Popsicles

If you make this Frozen Hot Chocolate Starbucks Recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!