Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate is the coziest treat! This hot chocolate is infused with all the flavors of a vanilla chai latte, making it perfect for sipping on a cold winter night. It's an easy, from scratch recipe.
Let’s first start by all agreeing that homemade hot chocolate is unbeatable. It’s the best. When I was younger, my mom made a lot of hot chocolate from scratch by just following the directions on the back of the Hersey’s Cocoa Powder. Although this recipe is built off of the Hersey’s recipe, I’ve made it my own by infusing the hot chocolate with all the spices of a vanilla chai latte and melting in bittersweet chocolate to make it extra rich and creamy.
Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate brings together the best morning and evening cold weather drinks (well, minus coffee). In my opinion, a chai tea latte is more of a morning beverage and hot chocolate is a late night treat. So clearly the combination together means that it’s acceptable to drink a Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate any time of the day.
The last time I sipped on hot chocolate (other than for this recipe shoot, in which case I slammed the hot chocolate after – it’s that good) was less than a month ago when I was playing a board game with my family out in Wisconsin. In case you’re wondering, we were playing Ticket to Ride, which I refer to as “the train game.” It’s seriously so fun, well, for the most part. This is how it usually goes: I think I’m kicking ass and totally think I’m going to win, and then bam, I lose.
Even though I usually lose, I really wish I was playing a board game with my family and sipping on a Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate right now. What I’m actually doing is riding passenger on a 3-hour drive back from a work trip in Iowa – ya know, for my big girl day job. So, I am taking full advantage of working offline on my blog.
When we get back to Minnesota for the night, my mom and I are going to visit my brother (Matt), aunt and uncle, grandma, and great-grandma who is 101 years old! Can you believe it? Until the age of 98, she lived alone in the house she shared with my great-grandfather, and she was miss independent. But, it came the time that she moved into assisted living, which is where she is still living today.
I recently showed my great grandma some of my food photography and tried to explain to her how a food blog works. I'm still not quite sure she understood, but she enjoyed looking at my photos nonetheless.
More great cold weather recipes:
- Fudgy Peppermint Mocha Brownies
- Wonton Wrapper Squash Ravioli with Sweet Brown Butter Sage Sauce
- Chicken and Dumplings Soup from Scratch
- Creamy Smoked Ham and Bean Soup
- Five Pepper Beer Chili
Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 4 chai tea bags (I used Tazo)
- 4 cups whole milk
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate bar finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Over high heat, bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and add chai tea bags. Cover with a lid and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Pour the milk into the saucepan with the tea and mix together. Simmer over medium-low heat (do not boil) for about 7-10 minutes until milk is heated through to a desirable temperature. (During this step, you can leave the tea bags in the milk for a deeper chai flavor, but use caution as the strings on the tea bags may hang close to the flame/burner.)
- Discard the tea bags, and add cocoa powder, sugar, chocolate, and vanilla. Whisk well to combine.
- Remove from heat and serve warm topped with marshmallows or whipped cream!
Jamieanne says
My friend and I were dreaming of a mix between a chai latte and a hot chocolate to drink while sitting around a crackling, warming fire. I came across your recipe for Vanilla Chai Hot Chocolate and made it today - wow!! It was incredibly easy to make and tasted absolutely beautiful! I took some to share with a few of my friends and everyone loved it! Thank you so much, we’ve found our ultimate hot chocolate recipe! 🙂