I LOVE hot chocolate. But I barely ever had it because hot chocolate (at Starbucks, other restaurants, etc.) are always loaded with calories and sugar! So I was thrilled when I found the 25 calorie hot chocolate at my local grocery store. All the big chains carry it (Safeway, Albertsons, etc.) and if you can’t find it in your grocery store you can definitely find it online.
So how does the 25 calorie hot chocolate compare to the Starbucks version? Well here goes:
Starbucks Hot Chocolate (Tall)
– Total calories: 330!
– Grams of fat: 18g
– Sugar: ~28g
Nestle Fat Free 25 Calorie Hot Chocolate
– It’s only 25 calories!
– Grams of Fat: ZERO
– Sugar: 4g
– If you make it with 3/4 cup of hot water and 1/4 cup 1% milk, you end up with a huge cup of hot chocolate (comparable to a tall Starbucks) for only ~50 calories
– If you want to make it with 1 cup of nonfat milk, you’ll still only rack up ~125 calories!
So basically, you could have 10 Nestle hot chocolate packets and it would still be LESS than ONE Tall Starbucks Hot Chocolate! Isn’t that nuts! The only thing to keep in mind is that the Nestle Hot Chocolate is sweetened with Aspartame which is obviously not the best thing to have on a frequent basis. But once in a while, it’s totally fine (which is when you’d get that Hot Chocolate craving anyway!) 🙂
If you don’t like Aspartame, but you do like Splenda, another option is to use Ghiradelli Unsweetened Cocoa (15 calories for 1 Tbsp) and sweeten it with a couple packets of Splenda which would do the trick too. Now you can enjoy hot chocolate guilt free!
The Picky Eater: A Healthy Food Blog 