Starbucks begins selling its "Signature Hot Chocolate." What's the reaction?

The new hot chocolate is different from the original in that it's more chocolaty, and less based on milk. The new blend contains four types of West African cocoa. What are the early reviews? || Starbucks' newest item is hot, chocolaty

Comments

[Sarah]

I tried a sample today - it was heavenly!

[Barista Joe]

Just tried it for the first time yesterday. It's okay; if you're looking to try it, don't order bigger than a tall; it's SUPER rich (tastes like you're drinking a candy bar). I also found it leaves your mouth extremely dried out, to the point that I had to have a whole cup of water after finishing it.

-J

[Jenn]

Customers are really liking this so far. I've found that it's so chocolately that I cannot drink more than a short, but the salt on top of the whipped cream is delicious.

[Ryan (SS)]

chantico déjà vu anyone?

[ShiftyinNV]

We've been sampling this for awhile and customers have really taken to it.

In fact, the samples have been so popular that I had not actually gotten to try the salted caramel one. Yesterday I had some chocolate left over after making one and gave it a go.

I thought it was fantastic. The combination of the salty with the sweet is delicious. I would echo what others have said, it is EXTREMELY rich. I can't imagine being able to drink a venti or even a grande.

It seems to be very popular with partners in our store as well, which always bodes well. When partners genuinely like something their enthusiasm comes across to customers in a way it doesn't when they're just trying to push whatever the latest notion is (e.g., sugar free mocha, which no one in our store could really honestly have ever said they liked).

[Mary(ASM)]

it great i love the hazelmut signature hot chocolate its the perfect blend a chocolate and nutty goodness. i belive the signature hot chocolate will do great..

my only qualm is that it cannot be made with soy. i've been cutting down on my dairy and yesterday drank what amounted to a tall size without even realizing that it was milk-based. i felt irpy. :(

it's sad that dairy-free people will be unable to enjoy the yummy.

[SS]

All our customers have seemed to really like the samples; the partners all like it and are sharing their excitement with the customers. Even with all that, we didn't manage to sell many this morning. I imagine it will sell really well during evenings and weekends, though.

[AmericanoMan]

YUCK!

I fail to find how any chocolate lover could like this, it was no better than a package of Swiss Miss made with water.

When I went in this morning, they were between rushes so I figured good time to try a signature hot chocolate since I expected it to take some time to make--well when I asked for whole milk I was told it was only made with non-fat milk. This is no hand crafted signature drink. The night before the pour a bag of powder in a pitcher, fill it with non-fat milk and stir. Next day your drink is started with this base and it goes downhill from there.

Powder taste and mouthfeel. Since it is made with non-fat milk there is no flavor stay on the tongue. What little chocolate taste there was was not premium.

Another case of Starbucks marketing doing a job of trying to make us think this is a great drink--NOT.

A normal mocha tastes better.

[ash_sk8s]

I haven't tried it yet. I think I'll go in and try just a short tomorrow.

[LEGENDARY OR BUST]

Just order a REGULAR hot chocolate with hazelnut, caramel, or any other syrup, like Cinnamon Dolce. It's even better than with cocoa power on top. Regular hot chocolate is better than this Signature junk. I like the old-school HC better.

[Barista]

AmericanoMan, I like your bitterness. No pun intended.

[Lig]

i love it!

[SBUXCUSTOMER]

Are these three new hot chocolate the same as the regular hot chocolate?

[SBUXCUSTOMER]

Me again.
I hit "post too soon". By the same I mean, the same hot chocolate but with three new twists. Or is it a completely different ingredient?

I will try some this Friday.

[SBUXCSTMR]

Have you guys seen the calories on these hot chololates? Over 550 calories.

[SBUX CSTMR]

I believe that these hot chocolate should have been released during the winter/Christmas time rather than now.

[Jim Romenesko]

SBUXCSTMR: If you'd read the summary, you'd know the answer.

[Nerfebarista]

Actually Americanoman,

It's made with Water first, then we add nonfat to the mix. just thought I'd brighten your day, since it seemed like you were a little down. Whatever, if you had actually tried the drink, rather than quoting what you think a nonfat drink would taste like, you'd know that, that stuff stays in your mouth for a good 2 to 3 days before going away. It is very much like what Chantico used to be, but this time around it's made only with 4 ethically sourced cocos sugar and vanilla extract. (thats what the book says)Skip the syrup flavorings and whipped cream if you wanna knock out the calories. =)

[hot choc]

it's too chocolatey! no one is buying it at our store.

[Nerfebarista]

I looooooooooooooves the seasalted caramel hotchocolate. mmmmmmmmmmmm precious. Love the drink code on that thing too... scshc i think lol.

[ME]

Either the store i went to this morning forgot the launch or it is not available in canada yet. There was not a single sign in the whole store making anyone aware of the launch... :-(

But since I'm a partner (of another store, I just haven't been there today) I already tried the signature hot chocolate. And as a chocolate lover I have to say. YUMMY!!! Very delicious!

Unfortunately the launch was once again not done perfect. Apparently not a lot of people even know we can customize the drink with any kind of milk the customer wants to. It is just a pain to prepare it and maybe, just maybe your Barista this morning didn't feel quite as legendary as he was supposed to which is why he didn't offer it with whole milk... He would have to prepare another batch of the chocolate mix and then measure the appropriate amount and mix it with your choice of milk.

Quite frankly I don't know why we don't just keep the chocolate base and mix it with the milk on demand. That wouldn't take much longer and we would really be able to customize it on the fly. Why does it have to be nonfat as default? Is this because otherwise they would have to post the calories of the other versions as well? Does it still shock anyone to read a hot chocolate is not the heathiest drink on earth???

Anyways, I believe it will be a huge success! Just go out, be legendary and sell it!

To the poster who said you can't get it with soy. Thats not true. If you want it made to order with soy, we can do that. All retail partners were sent instructions on how to do so. However, just because its made with soy doesnt mean its dairy free. There is dried milk involved in the chocolate mix we use.

[TORONTOWYLD]

Brought a Venti Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate home to my bf as my last partner drink of the day -- he loved it at first sip! (And the last sip didn't come too far behind ;> )

[james]

any word on whether or not Barnes and Noble cafes will carry this?

[nhills]

so far no one has said anything about the new, generic non-silk soy. thoughts? our customers hate it and a few have stopped ordering it.

[WhoGivesaDam]

I have had numerous complaints about the new soy at my store. I think it's just going to take time for people to get used to it.

[Marcus]

I tried the salty caramel hot chocolate. The barista took a cup and then said, oh what size? I said, oh grande I guess (I usually get an iced grande latte), and she almost looked a bit surprised.....so you all know why now of course...it was good...I am not used to very sweet things, so if I order it again I will try to modify my order to be less sweet and definitely no whipped cream or caramel next time, but I did like the salt.

I was still nursing the drink by the time I got home and so I put it over ice which made it a bit less overwhelming.

Drinks like that are tricky--you almost need something to cut it with....which is why I think milkshakes are popular...it's cut by the fact that it's cold which makes it more refreshing than something hot and fatty, which can be a bit cloying at times.

[KitteryMan]

The sea salt caramel is better without the toffee nut syrup. One of my fellow partners tried it with me first thing this morning when we opened and we thought it was better without toffee nut flavoring. And we put extra salt on ours...

[spence]

Everyone liked/loved at our store. Lots of positives. To quote, "This is the best. This is the bomb."

[johnaengus]

Yummy! Saw this thread and had to try it today. Had the Salted caramel and it was yummy!

[AmericanoMan]

Nerfebarista

I did try the "Signature Hot Chocolate", I would never comment on a drink that I had never tasted and never discussed my impressions/opinions with the folks at my favorite Starbucks.

Like the Vivanno, a MINORITY of the "partners" at the 3 Starbucks I frequent express even the slightest "like" of the new drink.

I have had a lot of extremely fine "ethically" produced premium chocolate, what Starbucks is getting is not very good.

Life is too short to eat bad food or drink bad coffee.

[LEGENDARY OR BUST]

Our best drink is the Orange Mango Banana Vivanno. I have had about 100 of these since the launch, i.e about once a day roughly since July 15th. :) All other drinks pale in comparison.

[LEGENDARY OR BUST]

The new soy boxes that we get are still made by Silk. They are just twice the size of the old boxes, hence less opening of boxes.

[LEGENDARY OR BUST]

The new boxes still have the annoying strip you have to lift/puncture. I wish it had a screw-on top instead like the grocery store Silk boxes.

[barista lane]

i think SHC is great. i wish people who disagreed would just say it without so much rant...

[Ari]

I have not tried it yet, but my manager said that it tasted the same to him as normal hot chocolate.

[embean]

how do you make the new HC base...
past partner, am curious....
Is it one kind of new base, then you add something, like salt caramel syrup or hazelnut syrup? or is it 3 bases?
is it regular caramel syrup, and then just salt on top? : \

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

This is off topic. What did Melody wear?

[MSbarista]

So the new hot chocolate is not good at all to me. It has WAY too much chocolate and the after taste is not pleasing at all.
As for the new soy milk... It's def. not my favorite. I usually don't drink or eat any type of dairy, besides a few samples of the new hot chocolate recently, so adjusting to this new soy milk hasn't been difficult it's just unneccesary.

[sbuxnewbie]

I've tried it, with the toffee nut syrup, plain, and with hazelnut. Also, SF Hazelnut.

First off, it tastes like milk chocolate, rather than dark or semisweet. According to the literature, this is supposed to appeal to those who like things less sweet.

Huh????

Milk chocolate is SO much sweeter than a dark chocolate/ semisweet. So much so that when you add the standard pumps of syrup, you end up with a mouth blast of sugar.

Yuck - it is just undrinkable.

A tall SHC with 1/2 pump of SF hazelnut, no whip, is tolerable. The straight SHC is not - until I added 1/2 pump of mocha. Any amount of toffee nut is too much/too sweet in this drink.

However: I can wax enthusiastically about nearly any of our beverages, especially when I know what a customer wants. I had one of our regular HC customers in today, and told her that if she didn't like the salted caramel SHC, I would personally buy her hot chocolate for the next week.

She's getting the SCSHC, and I'm not paying.

Just because I don't care for it, doesn't mean my customers won't.

I'll stick with my nonfat lattes.

[Mook]

At my store, we sort of sampled it today (maybe 4 or 5 batches of samples) but customers just weren't going for it. Didn't even sell more than like 5.

It's much too rich. More like a desert (same with the chantico) and I just don't see it selling all that well..

I do like how there are different varieties of it, though..especially the salted caramel (with toffee nut syrup!) which is divine.

Most people won't appreciate it because they want their caffeine.

Does anyone know the caffeine content of the signature hot chocolates? I'm sure there's a trace amount, as cocoa has some caffeine..

[just wondering]

What goes in the recipe when it's made at the store? Is it a general hot chocolate mix with syrups pumped in? Is milk added in addition?

[CoffeeMaster33]

The salted caramel version is excellent!

We have lots of lactose-intolerant people (both partners and customers) at my store, so we're making one pitcher with non-fat (to recipe), and another with lactaid milk (lactose-free milk offered in Alberta). It's a bit richer, since it's 2%, but it means so many more people can enjoy it!

So for those of you in other markets, if the demand is there, make a whole batch with soy! Man, that would taste sweet...

[anon]

Can't wait to try it.

[SBUXCSTMR]

It varies by location but about how much does the sea salt hot chocolate cost?

I tried it today... it is way much better than the traditional hot chocolate. It's rich and yummy... I will not have it everyday but rather a treat over the weekend...

I love it...

[Crema the crop]

My store is near a private downtown University. It's getting chilly out, and close to midterms. Our cafe was packed tonight. We were suggesting and sampling the SHCs, and ended up making four bags of mix in two hours. That's eight pitchers.

So, it's going over quite well so far at my store.

[Taren]

It makes me want dehydrated marshmallows real bad.

[Cam is Cam]

Everyone seems to be asking, so here's how we make it.

We mix one packet of the mix with a half liter of hot water and a half liter of cold water, mixing thoroughly in between. We then add 1.5 liters of nonfat milk and mix it again, then transfer it to two pitchers.

It's good for 24 hours. I think one of the cooler things is that the pitchers we keep it in have this plunge-like mixing device built in. So it will always be mixed thoroughly, whenever you order it.

If you think it's too rich, just have them make it without the syrup. It tastes great and settles the sugar down to tolerable levels.

I think it'll start picking up more as it gets colder.

P.S. The sea salt is BOMB! Initially I thought it was really weird, but it works!