Early review of Starbucks' Chantico chocolate drink: "That stuff is really yummy"

One of the Evanston Starbucks is asking "guests" to sample the new CHANTICO -- they call it a chocolate bar in a cup -- which is coming out January 8. One kid (about 11) absolutely loved it, while his dad quickly asked for a cup of water. ("This drink needs a chaser," he said.) Another customer said he'd probably never buy it because of the calories. A 6-ounce cup has 390 calories, 21 grams of fat and 51 carbs. Here's background on the drink. (UPDATE: I just tried it; it's almost like drinking a melted Hersey's bar.)

Comments

[Pat Calkins]

I live in New Jersey very close to Manhattan. I can't find mocha power in any Starbucks is it because of the promotion of this new chocolate drink? Any one know where I can find Starbucks Mocha Power in this area? Please let me know where to look.

[Susan]

I live in Maryland and am an every day Starbucks patron - plus I drink an iced mocha at home every morning using the mocha powder. I was having trouble finding it at home before coming to vacation in Jacksonville where I cannot find it at all! A barista told me that it has been discontinued!! Are they kidding?!? I NEED MOCHA POWDER! Does anyone know anything concrete? How can they do that without replacing it with something else? It's a staple item just like the syrups!

[Doug Bethune]

It saddens me to here that Chantico is being discontinued. I just found out about Chantico in Dec. 05. I went to my Starbucks store where I received the sad news. They are selling only the stock they have in the store. I tried to see if they would sell the remaining mix they had in the back, but the person just laughed. I'm a cocolate junky and this was a good way to get a fix.

[Thom]

Chantico with two shots of espresso could keep me going for hours. I'll need to live longer to accomplish as much as I did under its influence. Then again, given the fat content, I probably will! Still, I wish they'd bring it back.

[Donna]

I got hooked on the mocha frap with malt and was sad to hear the malt additive was discontinued. I even tried buying the Starbucks bottles at the grocery store and adding Ovaltine but it is not the same.

[Jay Singh]

starbucks should just honor the coupon

[JennStiller]

I was wondering what happenned to this. Oh well, I just received samples of an ancho chile ground chocolate from I.B.C. and wanted to check it's nutritional facts against the Chantico. Looks like I'm much better off with the ancho chile with 140 calories and .5g of fat vs that 300+...ouch.

[Drinking Chocolate]

Drinking chocolate is delicious. We just tried the new SF Cioccolata Calda and loved it. They have other gourmet chocolates for chocolate fountains. Their drinking chocolate supercedes anything else we've tried.

[PissedOFFchristmasDRINK]

Did anyone see or order a Gingerbread Latte yet this year? it's like .70 OR.75 just for the dam syrup!
I may need to start thing about this $4.00 + latte a day thing and just start to may my drink at home. All the syrups are $6.95 for the bottle Gingerbread too!

SO DO WE NEED TO DROP .75 CENTS FOR THE SYRUP!

...don't forget you get the nutmeg too.

:)

[Christopher Donnelly]

Ok, i have been searching high and low, there is a starbucks commercial with the song that goes"whoa time flies by" and in the second scene there is a guy in a subway, who i think is beautiful and i would like to know who he is and if anyone could tell me it would be great!

[kevin]

baristas have been explicitly instructed not to sell the gingerbread syrup by the bottle. any other core syrup is yours to take home if you'd like.

[Andrea]

If you are missing the Chantico, then an easy way to get a similar taste is to melt pieces of good dark chocolate (the 70% or 85% Lindt, or the Bittersweet Chocolate from Trader Joes work perfectly) in the milk of your choice (at least 2% to get that thick mouthfeel though).
The Italian chocolate is good, but they use cocoa and thicken it with cornstarch. I think the Chantico is more in the French style, which is high quality chocolate melted in limited amounts of milk.
Slowly, slowly, heat the milk (try 6 or 8 oz) on low heat, stir gently to avoid the nasty skin (or skim the skin off). When you notice tiny bubbles forming around the periphery of the saucepan, add the chocolate, broken up into pieces, and then stir it and once it's melted, use a whisk. You'll have a very satisfying, rich, chocolate drink. Don't use American chocolate...the taste will not be good and the waxy filler or whatever that they use will not be pleasant. You can add more or less chocolate depending on your tastes, but if you want the real deal, add more. You can taste it periodically to decide if you need more. You can use a combination of unsweetened cocoa and dark chocolate too...I promise that you'll come up with your own at home version of Chantico that makes you very happy.
If you want to splurge, buy the pre-shaved drinking chocolate from Williams-Sonoma...it is a seasonal item that costs $17.50/can but goes on sale after the holidays until it runs out. They sell regular and Peppermint. If you use your own chocolate, you can add vanilla, peppermint, cinnamon, whatever you like. William-Sonoma markets their products as being inspired by the Chocolat Africain at Angelina's on Rue de Rivoli in Pari.
It is all about taste...I think that what is sold as hot chocolate at Starbucks sucks...they use chocolate syrup which does not make good hot chocolate...too sweet and lacking in the chocolate flavor. It's more like a chocolate steamer. I'd say that anyone who has uttered the phrase "too chocolatey" will like it.
Um, can't you find Gingerbread or Peppermint syrup from other merchants...few neighborhood coffee shops might sell it to you, but you can buy it yourself online...maybe Da Vinci or Monin...just google Gingerbread syrup. And some coffee/tea shops carry many flavors as well that are for sale to the public. Starbucks isn't going to let you have a $5-6 bottle (and from that, you can make gingerbread lattes until you hate them) b/c then you won't have to pay them $4 per cup to get your fix.

[kim-ha albert]

I find the corporation Starbucks to be the most odious and omnipresent sort of brainwashing/behavior modification "experiment" ever thrust upon the people, not just the Amis--the most phony baristas masquerading as people which are simply an extention of the parasitic kind of cancerous growth Starbucks is, once it has attatched itself onto a new host--Oxfam is right to lambast this corporation--Vietnamese coffee farmers and the workers (slaves) which the company has reduced the poor people into being, a sort of twisted 21st century corvee - labour sort of deal sans les colons d'Indochine Francaise!They opportunistically charged for water in the 11 September 2001--at a price Fire and Rescue people found scandalous. No, Starbucks, you have no decency--once educated and willfull people get on to your gig, as they have with McDonald's, Phillip Morris, Walmart, Pfizer and other "great" corporations, (i.e. $40 million bonus for Morgan/Stanley exec!), you will soon be in bankruptcy, your "partners"--a euphemism for employees, will be hard-pressed to find an employer to give them another chance, because of your cult-like and invasive "body-snatcher" take over the carcass tactics, and this snippet of "Americana" will eventually come to embarass and annoy future generations regarding what hath this land wrought! Fortunately in an open society the small can point out the mighty villain
lest the soft-headed don't get it!

at least chose an active thread to rant in, if you can't find one that has relevance to your rant.

and starbucks doesn't import vietnamese coffees, dork. only the stores in vietname have a couple of blends, because they're buying locally - tohelp support the farmers.

be a hater, but at least be informed.

[Theolaxor]

i really dont understand why people think that by posting on a starbucks gossip website they can somehow change the minds of all the customers causing the company's downfall

[Kim-Ha Albert (陈金夏)]

Call people dorks and then accuse them of being a hater? Oxfam documents exploitation by Starbucks--You, Bozo, can't even spell, and I submit that just like so many graffiti spray paint can "taggers" that you are such a despicable coward--You Can't even Leave Your Name! And you don't offer any support to "back up" your claim! Starbucks is a terrible corporation--the very kind George Orwell wrote about, when he was writing about the BBC--This is your Big Brother, turned "Big Mommy". But most Americans can't take the truth--that's why Bill Clinton lied about Monica--the TRUTH scares you people: Should we have invaded Iraq? Didn't we learn the lessons in Viet-Nam? Exploitation, slavery, neo-colonialism (a.k.a. Neo-Conservativism)--this is what America was built upon, so Starbucks, verily, is the American Company, par excellence. It doesn't, however, contribute to making the world a better place--they do not even recycle their own plastic refuse, nor the Odwalla juice containers! How eco-responsible is that!

[katie]

thhat thing sucks!!! it made me run like ten miles, and i was shaking for days, cuase of all the caffience

[katie]

thhat thing sucks!!! it made me run like ten miles, and i was shaking for days, cuase of all the caffience

[katie]

thhat thing sucks!!! it made me run like ten miles, and i was shaking for days, cuase of all the caffience

[Theolaxor]

our store recycles our plastic refuse - it just depends on your area's WM program

[sammeev]

I have purchased Chantico on ebay and seller mentioned a small hole in bag (old lot, tends to have tiny tears) which is covered by Starbucks sticket.
Seller says they used SB stickers in store to handle small tears.
I am wary of using it now. has anyone else bought Chantico recently from ebay, had this issue and tried it?

[count Florida]

If I said to you, "I have a great idea for a business. I'll open a whole new type of coffee shop. Instead of charging 60 cents for coffee, I'll charge $2.50, $3.50, $4.50, and $5.50. Not only that, I'll have no tables, no chairs, no water, no free refills, no waiters, no busboys, serve it in cardboard cups, and have the customer clean it up for 20 minutes after they're finished."

Would you say to me, "That's the greatest idea for a business I ever heard! We can open a chain of these all over the world!"

No, you would put me right into a sanitarium.

And it's burnt coffee! It's burnt coffee at Starbuck's, be honest about it.

If you get burnt coffee in a coffee shop, you call a cop. You say, "It's the bottom of the pot. I don't drink from the bottom of the pot. But when it's burnt at Starbuck's, they say, "Oh, it's a special roast. It's a special bean from Argentina..."

The bean is in your head!!! I know burnt!!! You want coffee in a coffee shop, that's 60 cents. But at Starbuck's, if it's Cafi Latte: $3.50, Creamier: $4.50. Caffe Suisse: $9.50. For each French word, another $4.00.

Why does a little cream in coffee make it worth $3.50? Go into any coffee shop; they'll give you all the cream you want until you're blue in the face.

40 million people are walking around in coffee shops with pitchers of cream: "Here's all the cream you want!" And it's still 60 cents. You know why? Because it's called "coffee." You want cinnamon in your coffee? Ask for cinnamon in a coffee shop; they'll give you all the cinnamon you want. Do they ask you for more money because it's cinnamon? It's the same price for cinnamon in your coffee as for coffee without cinnamon - 60 cents, that's it.

But not in Starbucks. Over there, it's Cinnamonnier - $9.50. You want a refill in a regular coffee shop, they'll give you all the refills you want until you drop dead. You can come in when you're 27 and keep drinking coffee until you're 98. And they'll start begging you: "Here, You want more coffee?"

Do you know that you can't get a refill at Starbucks? A refill is a $1.50, 2 refills, $4.50, 3 refills, $19.50. So, for 4 cups of coffee - $35.00.

And there're no chairs in those Starbucks. Instead, they have these high stools. You ever see these stools? You haven't been on a chair that high since you were 2. Seventy-three year old Jews are climbing and climbing to get to the top of the chair. And when they get to the top, they can't even drink the coffee because there's 12 people around one little table, and everybody's saying, "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me..." Then they can't get off the chair. Old Jews are begging Gentiles, "Mister, could you get me off this?"

Do you remember what a cafeteria was? In poor neighborhoods all over this country, they went to a cafeteria because there were no waiters and no service. And so poor people could save money on a tip. Cafeterias didn't have regular tables or chairs either. They gave coffee to you in a cardboard cup. So because of that you paid less for the coffee. You got less, so you paid less. It's all the same at Starbucks - no chairs, no service, a cardboard cup for your coffee - except in Starbucks, the less you get, the more it costs. By the time they give you nothing, it's worth 4 times as much!

Am I exaggerating? Did you ever try to buy a cookie in Starbuck's? Buy a cookie in a regular coffee shop. You can tear down a building with that cookie. And the whole cookie is 60 cents. At Starbuck's, you're going to have to hire a detective to find that cookie, and it's $9.50. And you can't put butter on it because they want extra. Do you know that if you buy a bagel, you pay extra for cream cheese in Starbuck's? Cream cheese, another 60 Cents. A knife to put it on, 32 cents. If it reaches the bagel, 48 cents.

That bagel cost you $3.12. And they don't give you the butter or the cream cheese. They don't give it to you. They tell you where it is. "Oh, you want butter? It's over there. Cream cheese? Over here. Sugar? Sugar is here."

Now you become your own waiter. You walk around with a tray. "I'll take that cookie. Where's the butter? The butter's here. Where's the cream cheese? The cream cheese is there." You walked around for an hour and a half selecting items, and then they guy at the cash register has a glass in front of him that says "Tips." You're waiting on tables for an hour, and you owe him money?

Then there's a sign that says please clean it up when you're finished. They don't give you a waiter or a busboy. Now you've become the janitor. Now you have to start cleaning up the place. Old Jews are walking around cleaning up Starbuck's. "Oh, he's got dirt too? Wait, I'll clean this up." They clean up the place for an hour and a half. Starbuck's can only get away with it because they have French titles for everything.

And I say this with the highest respect, because I don't like to talk about people.

Umm... Starbucks doesn't charge for cream in coffee. There's a huge carafe at the condiment bar and you can pour it to your heart's content.

And refills are less than $1, cream cheese is free...

I've never been to a Starbucks without chairs. What is it you're smoking, by the way?

[ex-sbuxmanager]

Count Florida,

That's the most original piece of writing I've ever read about starbucks. It doesn't sound like a Jackie Mason routine at all.

[Gina]

I havent tried the chantico but I did try something at Barnes and noble.
They had a starbucks in there and is was a cross between hot coca and coffee.
It was toasted marshmello mocha...I dont know if it was just seasonal but it made my toesl curl....Absolutely delicious!!

[jaym]

uhm...how bout try buying choco mucho... and eat it... or put chocolate bar in you milo drink.

[lance]

How much is the usual price of coffee now? I have not tested starbucks but i like to visit there

[Drinking Chocolate]

I ran across this drinking chocolate blog doing a Google search. I found a drinking chocolate much better than the Chantico at http://www.drinkingchocolates.com. It is called Cioccolata Calda and is really delicious.

[Lori Lamb]

I found this thread for the non defunct Chantico. Let me say, I recognized it was fattening, but it was a dessert drink and I loved it.

My experience living in the Willamette Valley (Oregon) in one 4 month period I was in Seattle, Washington DC, Portland, and many Starbucks in Salem or Keizer. And in each case the barista would tell me they did not have any made up because no one ordered it. And each time I'd point out I was trying to order it, and asked how many other people had tried to order it with the same snotty comment.

It made me wonder if there was an underground barista network where they took a vote to ban the drink.

My friend Lorraine was the manager of a faux Starbucks, you know, the ones in grocery stores where the employee actually works for the store, not Bucky's. Anyway, she willingly made up Chantico, always had a pitcher and it sold for her. All the stores in the area stopped selling it, and sent their stock to her location. So to me, it was unwillingness on the part of employees to make the drink that caused it's downfall.

It's not like American's don't over eat and over spend at fast food.