I don’t drink coffee and about a year ago I found one kind of tea that I enjoy. But I am often cold and live in a land of almost perpetual winter so a girl has got to have some kind of hot beverage to warm herself with.

Enter homemade hot chocolate.

I originally found a Starbucks copycat recipe years ago and used to make it here and there but in the last two years I’ve modified it quite a bit and now make it every day.

It may be a bit of an addiction.

The original recipe and how I made it for years was with regular milk but once I realized that dairy was severely affecting my system and going off of it completely I knew I needed to figure out a way to continue having it.

Another change I made over the years was switching out the sugar in the original recipe for honey.  If I was going to be drinking this every day (and I was) I wanted it to be at least a little healthier.

A lot of the specific flavor the the hot chocolate is going to depend on the type of cocoa and cashew milk you use. For cashew milk, I’ve tried a couple and the best one for this recipe is Silk’s Creamy Cashew in Unsweetened Original. It’s also a really great price for diary free milk!

THE BEST DAIRY-FREE HOT COCOA

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon honey or sugar*
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1 cup cashew milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Place water and honey in a microwave safe mug and microwave for 30 seconds.

Add cocoa and stir, then add milk and microwave for 1 minute and 40 seconds.

Stir in vanilla.

Enjoy!

* I started using this recipe with honey as a sweetener but have since realized I also have a sensitivity to honey! I now use just white sugar instead but have lowered it to 1.5 teaspoons instead.