6 Ways to Up Your Hot Chocolate

*AD – the item in this post was gifted to our household for this post. All opinions, as always, are our own.

When Tru Bamboo introduced us to the Tru Bamboo Tumbler, we were excited to see how it could upgrade our hot chocolate. This tumbler has a separate tea strainer, which you can fill with tea leaves, and screw shut, placing it into the tumbler where it fits tightly into the top portion of the bottle. From there, you could fill the tumbler up with hot water to have your tea brew. Now, in the wintertime, I am all for hot chocolate – not so much tea – so we used this cool tea strainer bit to infuse the hot chocolate in the tumbler with our own flavors! Milka Oreo Alpine Milk ChocolateWhen Tru Bamboo introduced us to the Tru Bamboo Tumbler, we were excited to see how it could upgrade our hot chocolate. This tumbler has a separate tea strainer, which you can fill with tea leaves, and screw shut, placing it into the tumbler where it fits tightly into the top portion of the bottle. From there, you could fill the tumbler up with hot water to have your tea brew. Now, in the wintertime, I am all for hot chocolate – not so much tea – so we used this cool tea strainer bit to infuse the hot chocolate in the tumbler with our own flavors!

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The bottom of this tumbler actually can be unscrewed, to hold some small nibbles or useful items like keys and coins. This can easily be removed and filled with items like marshmallows, mini-cookies and pretzels. If you are looking for a small snack to go with your hot chocolate, it’s a perfect container to hold both – and if you have kids that you are taking out with you on a cold winter’s day, having the option to bring surprise snacks is always something worth taking advantage of! You can even throw in a bit of candy or extra chocolate chips for later.

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These flavors can be infused by melting them or putting them in your hot chocolate, but the Tru Bamboo Tumbler is really amazing for infusing things into your drink. You can put any sort of chocolate bar into it, and if there are crunchy bits or nuts, they will be kept in the container so that you don’t need to gulp anything crunchy or solid. The tumbler is great if you want just a small hit of flavor, as you could just fill it up below the infuser basket, so that the infuser doesn’t sit in the hot liquid and instead only gives you a bit of extra flavor when you drink it. In case you are worried about how warm your drink will stay, I have been using mine often when we go out and about, and it does keep liquids piping hot for ages and ages! Anyway, let’s get to the flavors we picked:

Milka Oreo Milk Chocolate

You are going to find a few different chocolate bars in this list, as they just make sense to include include when changing the flavor of hot chocolate. The Milka brand is one we really enjoy in our household, as it’s just a delicious bar itself. The Oreo chocolate bar brings the flavors of cookies and cream to your hot chocolate, which is really lovely. Cookies are a big part of the holiday season and having your hot chocolate taste a bit like what you might leave Santa can bring a whole new flavor to the mix!

Glace Cherries

If you aren’t using the Tru Bamboo Tumbler, you are going to want to add a shot of cherry syrup to your hot chocolate, as it will not infuse as much as you will need it too. Adding a bunch of glace cherries to the infuser will result in the black forest flavored hot chocolate of your dreams. I love cherry flavored things, so I quite enjoy the subtle taste of cherry each and every time you take a sip!

Candy Canes

Want a bit of a peppermint hot chocolate? Peppermint hot chocolate always feels like Christmas to me. If you have some candy canes that have made some falls from the tree or cracks from making it’s way to your home, you can crush them a bit more and add them to the infuser to make a peppermint hot chocolate! Peppermint can be overpowering though, so do make sure you don’t go overboard.

Milka Strawberry Milk Chocolate

Thought, strawberries are a bit more summery, sometimes you might be looking for a bit of a brighter flavor to add to your hot chocolate. Adding a bar of strawberry milk chocolate adds a bit of a fruity, strawberry taste, which can be really different, yet oh so good. I really love strawberries, so with the quality of this chocolate bar and the lovely strawberry taste, it’s just such a good fit.

Poppet Mints

If peppermint is a bit on the strong side for you, you can throw a small handful of Poppet Mints to your infuser, bringing a more subtle mint flavor. These mints do wonders in hot chocolate, adding a rich, minty flavor to the chocolate itself. They are a perfect size to put inside the infuser or to put at the bottom of your mug of hot chocolate – though you will need to bash them a bit if they are directly in your hot chocolate.

Milka Peanut Caramel Milk Chocolate

If you like caramel, the Milka peanut caramel bar is perfect for adding a bit of nuts, salt, and of course, caramel into your drink. I am not a fan of all of the chunks of nuts in it, which is why I find the infuser to be perfect for this bar specifically, but either way, it’s a great bar to add to your hot chocolate for a bit of depth in it’s taste – especially if you aren’t a mint or fruit lover yourself.

This post is a part of our Blogmas series, with each and every post being about Christmas or Winter.