I am an absolute sweets junkie, my poison of choice being gourmet hot cocoas and coffees in exotic flavors, loaded with marshmallows, whipped cream, and maybe even a little bit of vanilla sugar or sprinkles if I happen to have them laying around. Unfortunately, most of the hot chocolate mixes that you can get at the store always taste watered-down and weak to me… so when I discovered the Teton Cocoa Company on Etsy, I was thrilled. They had rave reviews and some awesome holiday flavors – I ordered their sample packs ($6 each) of Eggnog and Pumpkin Spice, and got really, really excited.

The package containing my chocolatey goodness arrived a few days after my purchase – very quickly shipped, to my surprise. I immediately made myself a cup of each flavor in quick succession, because… I’ll be honest, multiple cups of cocoa/tea/coffee each day is totally normal for me. Anyhow, from the moment I started stirring the mix in, I knew it would be love. It got this silky, creamy, frothy look that made it clear that this was a richer cocoa than I was used to drinking… and looks did not deceive. Both flavors were incredible – I even used about half the amount that was recommended (in her store, she claims that each sample pack contains about three servings – but I got around 6-7 uses out of each package!) and it was still very flavorful!

The Eggnog flavor was my favorite of the two, not too sweet and not too heavy, but still very obviously eggnog-y, if that makes any sense. I know, I know, sucky description, but I haven’t made a successful career as a food critic for a reason. Bottom line, it was delicious, and my more sweet-toothed boyfriend (because somehow, that’s possible) would even add eggnog creamer. Personally, I didn’t think it needed anything more than marshmallows, and a few pounds of whipped cream. Seriously, if any of you have ever played Tales Of The World: Radiant Mythology and triggered the rather adorable Leon Magnus ♥’s Ice Cream skit, that’s about right when it comes to me and my love of whipped cream. I probably shouldn’t have admitted that…

Pumpkin Spice was equally good, and it would probably have been my favorite if I hadn’t sort of overdosed on various pumpkin-flavored stuff this Fall already… but it really is delicious: not too spicy, and there’s a smooth, sweet pumpkin backdrop behind the autumnal spices. A lot of “pumpkin” artificial flavoring I’ve had in other drinks or creamers always tasted vaguely burnt to me, but I didn’t sense that at all in this drink! So that made it a winner for me, since real pumpkin is one of my all-time favorite flavors, right up there with my unnatural obsession with anything melon-flavored!

I’m almost out of the two sample packs a week later, and while I was tempted to order the full size refills (you can buy up to a full pound of the mix!), I decided to try some of their other flavors instead… so now I have some White Chocolate and Caramel sample packs headed my way. I’ll be sure to review those as well, but so far, I feel like I can give Teton Cocoa Company a big thumbs up!

Tags: Etsy, Hot Cocoa