Spiced Orange Hot Chocolate

Lately it seems that I have written a lot about food and memories and how the taste of a specific flavor can bring total nostalgia. A few years ago my hubby and I visited Disneyland‘s private club, Club 33. We had been a few times before that, but the last time we were there was over the holidays in 2014.

Upon arrival, while we waited in the beautiful decorated entryway, we were handed a glass of orange spiced hot chocolate. I never go for an orange and chocolate combo... it’s just not my thing. Citrus and chocolate never interested me. I decided to take a sip and try new things, and I’m so glad that I did! I couldn’t get over the flavor combination! At the time I was unaware of my cane sugar intolerance, though I avoided sugar on the regular due to PCOS.

I haven’t had anything like that since and, while I have wanted to try to make it every year, I just haven’t until now.

NutPods is a wonderful company that makes Whole 30 approved, no added sugar, clean ingredient creamers for your coffee. During the holidays they launch a Pumpkin Spice Creamer flavor to which I decided it needed to be in a pumpkin pie smoothie ASAP (recipe here), and October 1 they have launched their brand new Dark Chocolate Orange Creamer! It’s a limited edition flavor that you should certainly not wait to order. (Order here)

The first thing that came to my mind was sitting in the entryway of one of my favorite places in Disneyland, Club 33, during the holidays in 2014.

Food can be nostalgic and take you back to memories as a child, places you’ve traveled, emotions you’ve experienced and even the holidays at Disneyland.

This version is certainly not as sweet and sugary as the one we had, but you can change that by adding sweetener of course. You do you!

I wanted to keep this simple and I’m excited to be able to share this delicious recipe with you.

To be honest, I don't even know if they still serve it there but it shall be served in our house during the holidays every year.

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INGREDIENTS

1 packet Four Sigmatic Hot Cacao Mix

3 TB NutPods Dark Chocolate Orange Creamer

1 tsp Cacao powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup water (or dairy free milk or choice)

(add sweetener of choice if desired)

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in blender, heat up over stove top. Serve hot and enjoy.

If you have a hand held frother (like this one), warm up water or dairy free milk on stove top, pour into a mug, add ingredients and mix well.

Garnish with an orange slice and orange zest if you like.

Here's our Club 33 Orange Spiced Hot Cocoa and some Club 33 photos: