A Hot Chocolate Cocktail with a Hint of Mint

When it’s cold outside, nothing beats snuggling up with a hot drink, (especially a stiff one). This Hot Chocolate Cocktail recipe comes to us from the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colorado. And believe, me the people at Bachelor Gulch know a thing or two about making you feel warm in the dead of winter.

TO TRY: Love hot cocktails? Check out this hot apple cider drink.

How to make the best hot chocolate cocktail

Hot chocolate cocktails really belong in a category all their own. A hot chocolate alcohol recipe is like the ultimate mashup of childhood comfort and adulting. True, they are part of a greater category of warm alcoholic drinks. But the leap from a Hot Toddy to hot chocolate cocktail recipes is a broad one.

Cocoa vs hot chocolate

The way to approach making these warm cocktails is to start thinking in terms of hot chocolate, also called drinking chocolate, instead of hot cocoa. Hot cocoa is the powdered drink you may have favored as a child. Drinking chocolate, on the other hand, is made with pieces of melted (preferably dark) chocolate in milk, cream, a plant-based milk alternative or, if you prefer, water.

RELATED: Why dark chocolate is among the best foods for women. 

This hot mixed drink recipe calls for using your favorite hot chocolate. (In other words, a warm mixture made with melted chocolate, not powdered mix packet.) My recommended vice for making this hot drink recipe is Dagoba Drinking Chocolate, a seductive hot chocolate alternative with great depth of dark chocolate flavor.

A hot chocolate mixed drink with peppermint schnapps

Of course, there’s more to this mixed drink than just the chocolate. A holiday season drink, it’s flavored with peppermint schnapps, like grown up Peppermint Patties. The zing of mint gives the drink a refreshing edge, keeping it from tasting overly sweet. And a peppermint stick garnish gives it the look of something that took far more time to make than this easy mixed drink recipe actually requires.

Make this hot drink recipe for date night

It is a winter alcoholic drink that, in presentation, screams, “I care!” It’s a good drink fr cuddling in front of a fire or watching drizzling rain through the window. And the combination of what is probably the world’s most famous aphrodisiac, chocolate, with the freshness of mint, (also aphrodisiac), this drink may just bring you a little more excitement than listening to the crackling of a fire.

RELATED: A Spiced Hot Chocolate Mix for Grownups

TO TRY: For another one of my favorite hot chocolate cocktails, check out The Almond Joy, flavored with the sweet almond taste of Amaretto.

Don’t have any peppermint schnapps? Order for home delivery with Drizly.