I love hot chocolate especially on a chilly afternoon or evening and I have two that I like. The first one comes in individual packets by a company called Eco-Bella. They primarily do skin care and have developed a healthy hot chocolate called Instant Bliss Beauty Drink. It is all organic and has as much fiber as an apple plus other ingredients that help support healthy skin. I mix it with a cup of unsweetened vanilla hemp milk (I like Living Harvest brand. It is mild and tastes better than other brands). I heat up the hemp milk and then add the packet. It can be ordered in a 24 count box at  www.MyVitanet.com I have not personally ordered from this company yet.

There is also a powder that is a mix of raw cacao and maca (root vegetable from Peru that is chock full of minerals and also helps to promote a healthy endocrine system, think hormones) It can be ordered from  www.healthywiseorganics.com and is called Toucan Cacao Maca. It has no sweetener so you have to add your own. Here is my recipe:

1 heaping teaspoon of Toucan Cacao Maca (you can add a little more or less depending on how chocolaty you like it)
1 cup unsweetened vanilla hemp milk (Living Harvest brand)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. Volcanic Nectar blue agave nectar*
2-3 tsp. of Trehalose**

*agave looks like honey but it is made from a cactus and is low on the glycemic load scale. The glycemic load measures how quickly and how high a food raises blood sugar. Foods that raise blood sugar quickly make the body produce high levels of insulin which over time can lead to problems such as diabetes and obesity. Apparently, all agave nectars are not created equal. This brand has the seal that it is safe for diabetics. You can order it from www.volcanicnectar.com

**this is a sweetener found naturally in honey, mushrooms, lobster, shrimp and foods produced using baker’s and brewer’s yeast. It looks just like table sugar and is about half as sweet. It is also low glycemic. Trehalose strengthens cell membranes in plants and animals. It is associated with desert life forms that can be fully dehydrated yet be brought back to life even after intervals of as much as 2500 years. It is also being used to treat some diseases now. It can be ordered through www.endowmentmed.org

Xocai Squares

This is a small square of high quality dark chocolate that is processed so that all the anti-oxidants are preserved. I usually eat about 2 of these a day. The recommended dose is 3 squares a day. I get anti-oxidants from other things in my diet so I normally just eat 1 or 2 pieces of this a day. 3 pieces (3.5 oz) of the Xobiotic squares have an ORAC* value of 46,400. The same amount of blueberries has an ORAC value of 6,552. The Xobiotic squares have probiotics in them. There are several different types of chocolate from this company and they are all very good and have a high ORAC value. I actually just like the chocolate itself but it has the added benefit of being healthy. I am signed up with the company because I am on a monthly auto-ship. If you want to order or sign up I would appreciate if you would do it through my site which is www.mxi.myoffice.com/kimberlycamacho It will help fund my research and testing of all products.

Another treat that I really love are the hemp nut brownies with walnuts from a company called UliMana. They are not really brownies per say but more like fudge. There are about 6 pieces to the container. They are all organic and are sweetened with Agave nectar (a low glycemic sweetner). They are dark chocolate decadence although they are not super sweet in my opinion. You can order them from www.ulimana.com They have other chocolates but this is my favorite.

*ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It is a measure of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants fight free radicals (basically free radicals are unstable atoms in the body). The theory is that organisms age because they accumulate free radical damage.