Hot chocolate that starts with cacao instead of a packet
A cocoa packet leads with sugar and works its way down through maltodextrin, hydrogenated oil and artificial flavour. This starts the other way round: brew roasted cacao like coffee, then sweeten and cream it yourself. You get a deeper, rounder cup and you decide exactly how sweet it is — which, if you have ever found packet cocoa cloying, is the whole point.
One ingredient in the bag. What you add after that is yours.
Why it drinks richer than the packet
The fat is still in the bean
Cocoa powder has had most of its cacao butter pressed out; that is what makes it a powder. Ours is the whole roasted bean, ground, so the cacao butter is still there and comes through in the brew. It is why a splash of milk turns the cup round and glossy rather than thin, and why you need less sweetener to get somewhere satisfying. The theobromine comes through with it — cacao's own gentle stimulant, and a good part of why the drink reads as chocolate at all.
Nothing was treated to make it behave
First most of the cacao butter is pressed out. Then the remainder is usually treated with an alkali — US labelling rules require the packet to say “cocoa processed with alkali”, which is why you have seen the phrase. It is a chemical step applied after the bean, and it costs most of the flavanols: Independent testing of commercial cocoa powders found the alkali step destroys about nine out of every ten flavanols — 34.6 mg per gram in untreated cocoa against 3.9 at the heaviest treatment. A long way from the bean. Then the mix on the shelf adds sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, emulsifiers and artificial flavour on top of that.
You control the sweetness, so it can be less
Packet cocoa arrives at one sweetness and that is the one you drink. Brew this and the sugar is a decision you make each time — a teaspoon of maple, a spoon of brown sugar, a couple of dates blended in, or nothing at all on the days you would rather not. Most people find they drift downwards once the flavour underneath is worth tasting.
“I bought this to blend in with my coffee to create a "mocha" profile. It is absolutely delicious. Of course, I tried some of the Choffy on its own and was very surprised in how much I loved it without the coffee. It's so natural tasting, not sweet like the store-bought chocolate mixes, but very clean and chocolaty.”
Pete Dionne · verified buyer
Decadent hot chocolate, made with brewed Volta Dark
This is the indulgent end of it — a slow simmer rather than a mug of cocoa. Brew the Choffy first, exactly as you would coffee, then it becomes the base for everything else.
- 4 cups brewed Volta Dark Choffy
- 1 can (14 oz) low-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 1 cup mini marshmallows, to finish
- Brew 4 cups of Volta Dark — 2 tablespoons of grounds per 6 oz of water, steeped three minutes and pressed.
- Combine everything except the marshmallows in a pot over medium heat and stir while it comes to a simmer.
- Turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
- Serve warm, with the marshmallows on top.
From our own recipe library. Twenty-one more are on the recipes page, from tiramisu to a steak marinade — all of them built on brewed Choffy or the dry grounds.
The two people usually start with
Dark roasts carry milk and sweetener best. Volta Dark is the one most people settle on.
Volta Dark Choffy Brewed Cacao
Volta Dark — deep and cocoa-forward, the roast that takes cream and sugar without losing itself. Unsweetened in the bag; you do the rest.
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French Roast Variety Set Choffy Brewed Cacao
Ecuador, Nigeria and Ivory Coast at French roast. Smokier and more coffee-like — worth having if you want to find out which bean you actually want to sweeten.
Shop thisMaking it sweet
How do I actually make hot chocolate with it?
Brew it like coffee — a French press, three minutes — then treat the brewed cup as your base instead of water. Warm milk in place of some or all of the water, sweeten to taste, and stir. Customers use maple syrup, brown sugar, honey, stevia and blended dates. There is no right answer; that is rather the point.
How much sweetener does it need?
Less than you would expect, and less than a packet gives you. Start with a teaspoon per cup and go from there. Because the bean's own fat is still in it, the cup reads rich before it reads sweet, so people usually end up under where they started.
Can I just use milk instead of water?
Yes — brew with water and finish with warm milk, or brew straight into milk if your press can take it. Milk-forward is closer to a traditional drinking chocolate; water-forward keeps more of the roast character. Both work.
Is this the same as drinking chocolate or cocoa?
No. Drinking chocolate is melted chocolate, cocoa is pressed powder, and both usually arrive pre-sweetened. This is the roasted bean brewed and strained, like coffee, and it is unsweetened until you change that.
Is it good for children?
Plenty of customers make it for their kids — the Medium roasts are the mildest. It does carry caffeine naturally — about 20 mg in an 8 oz cup, against about 96 for coffee — rather than none, so that is a judgement for you to make the same way you would with any chocolate.
Does it have flavanols and antioxidants?
Cacao is one of the richer plant sources of flavanols — the polyphenol family that includes epicatechin — and they are water-soluble, so they carry into the brew rather than staying behind in the grounds. No number exists for our own cup, because nobody has assayed one. What is on the record is what alkalizing costs cocoa powder: total flavanols 34.6 mg per gram natural against 3.9 heavily treated, and antioxidant capacity 615–846 µmol TE per gram against 94–294. Those are powder figures from a 2008 study rather than ours — and our bean never goes near an alkali.
From people who sweeten theirs
Google, Amazon and Walmart figures last checked 11 September 2026. The on-site figure updates itself.
“Every morning I use my Keurig machine to make a large cup of Choffy using 1 Volta Dark K Cup and 1 IC Dark K Cup plus 2 Stevia Packets and I know my day has started off right. Outstanding flavor combo !”
“My daughter asked for Choffy for Christmas and absolutely loved it!”
“Such a great flavor and easy use pods. My morning treat that doesn't add to my waistline”
The bean first, the sugar second
Roasted by us from four estates, never alkalized, nothing added in the bag. What goes in the cup after that is your call.
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