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Spent $80 on a gourmet hot chocolate mix and it tasted like chalk dust mixed with disappointment

Bought this fancy brand called ChocoVivo from a shop in Santa Monica after a coworker swore by it, but after three tries with different milks it still had that gritty, weird aftertaste that killed the whole cozy vibe, anyone else get burned by overpriced cocoa that promised comfort but delivered regret?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf261mo ago

Man that ChocoVivo stuff is exactly what I'm talking about, the price tag makes you think you're getting some artisanal bean-to-bar masterpiece but really you're just paying for fancy packaging and a backstory. I fell for that same trap with a brand called Dandelion a few years back, paid like $60 for a tin of their "single origin" cocoa and it had that same weird gritty texture you described. The problem with these small batch places is they don't test their mixes with regular milk (you know, the stuff most people use) and they assume everyone has a fancy frother or whatever. I actually found that using oat milk made it slightly less terrible but still not worth the money, should have just bought three boxes of Swiss Miss and called it a day. The worst part is you want to love it because you spent so much on it, so you keep trying different methods hoping it'll magically transform into something good.

the_ryan1mo ago

I dropped $45 on a Dandelion single-origin cocoa once. Made three cups. Each time I convinced myself it was smooth and rich. Nope. Gritty as sand. Ended up giving the rest to my neighbor's kid who used it in some science experiment. That $45 could've bought me 15 pounds of Hershey's syrup. Or maybe a lifetime supply of those little marshmallows. I still cringe thinking about it.

blair_dixon1mo ago

That Dandelion place sold me a $12 chocolate bar that tasted like a dusty hiking trail.