Lifestyle advice? On this website? Admittedly unlikely yet here we are.

When I got the news that yes, I am absolutely diabetic and need to change my diet, I was saddened by the loss of some of my favorite things. Orange juice, for instance, is pretty much gone for good. Other things can only be enjoyed in carefully controlled moderation and/or with heavily modified preparation.

Among those is hot cocoa. No longer can I just order up from a restaurant or chain store beverage vendor (Evil Empire or otherwise). Nor can I buy off-the-shelf cocoa mixes for use at home. The good news for me is that Vyx sussed out a way to make hot cocoa mix at home that I can use to brew up a mug once (or at most twice) a day in relative dietary safety. Would you like to know how to make such a beverage for yourself? Of course you would! Here’s what you’ll need:

• A kitchen weigh scale – It doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to have a grams measurement option and the ability to be “zeroed out” with an empty container in place, which any decent kitchen scale can do.
• A jar for your cocoa mix – We use the 4-cup size jar from Penzeys, which is a great place to shop in general, honestly. Ask the cooking enthusiast of the household to the jar to their shopping cart while loading up on some of their many other delightful selections. (This request gets easier if you’re the cooking enthusiast of the household, admittedly.)
• A 2-tablespoon scoop – I see them listed online as “coffee scoop” or “coffee measurer” and since the one I use comes from the Evil Coffee Empire… well, that makes sense. Anyway, just find one you like.
• Whole Milk Powder – I get a bag from Judee’s every few months.
• Cocoa Powder – This is where King Arthur Baking, another of our favorite “places” to shop, comes in. The option I recommend to start with is their best-selling Triple Cocoa Blend but the Bensdorp Cocoa Powder is also a great choice. Branch out and try other selections later!
• Sugar-free syrup – There are a few ways to go on this, but lately I’m using ChocZero‘s flavored “coffee syrup” options. (I have a bottle of “pumpkin spice” flavor coming in this week… we’ll see how that goes.) For straight “unflavored” syrup, I’ve had good results with the DaVinci brand. Just be aware that they make sugared and sugar-free options and check your labels carefully. Also, if you’re being extra conscious about ingredients for whatever reason you’ll want to check which alternative sweetener is in use and choose your brand options accordingly. The general cocoa-making process doesn’t really change from brand to brand, you just may need to adjust amounts used.

That’s a bit of a list, isn’t it? And not necessarily cheap. (Since when is being diabetic cheap anyway, am I right?) But worth it, if you’re trying to enjoy a sweet mug o’ cocoa without spiking your blood sugar levels. And unless you’re guzzling the stuff down like it’s going out of style (which… please don’t) then each shipment of ingredients should last you a little while between restocks.

Anyway, let’s get to the how:

1. Make sure your jar is clean and dry. One would think “clean” goes without saying, but… I’m saying it. For pedantry reasons. As for “dry,” we don’t want the resulting mix clumping up on the sides of the jar if we can help it.
2. Power up your scale and zero it out with the empty jar (without lid) on it.
3. Using whatever scooping or pouring method you prefer (I use a regular large soup spoon, your mileage may vary) to get 75 grams of cocoa powder into the jar. Note that a couple grams one way or the other isn’t a big deal. We’re not baking bread here, exact scientific rigor is not required.
4. Get a fresh scooping device (you don’t want cocoa powder in your milk powder) and add 150 grams of whole milk powder to the jar. The point is to end up with a 1-to-2 ratio of cocoa to milk powders.
5. Put the lid on the jar and clean up the mess. (You didn’t make a mess? Uh huh. Sure. I believe you.) Store away the powdered ingredients in the proverbial cool dry place and so on.
6. Make sure the lid is secure, then shake the jar vigorously in various ways and directions to mix the powders. I know this sounds silly but it honestly ends up working pretty well. As a bonus, it is less prone to making (even more of) a mess than trying to stir with a whisk or something like that. The 4-cup Penzeys jar is truly ideal for this, as you can hold the top and bottom of the jar in each hand and just shake-shake-shake all you want. It’s fun!
7. Once it looks like you’ve got a nice evenly blended mix, set the jar down and carefully unscrew the lid, then gently brush the powder that accumulated on the rim into the jar. You can skip this step, I suppose, but you’ll thank yourself later if you do this now.

That’s it, you have your cocoa mix now. At a mug per day (give or take) you should have a week-or-so’s worth of mix in your jar. (Honestly, I’ve never really tracked this. Go ahead and ping me in the comments with how wrong I am.) Brewing up a mug is fairly simple: Heat up some water in your kettle. Pour a not-quite-full “coffee scoop” worth of your new cocoa mix into a standard sized mug along with a (roughly) equal measure of your sweetening syrup of choice. Add water and stir, yadda yadda. There you go!

(If you don’t have a kettle… I mean, use whatever method you need but seriously get a kettle ASAP it’s so great for prepping hot beverages and one-off bowls of soup and so on. We have the Cuisinart kettle with the temperature buttons on the handle and we love it so much that when the first one gave up the ghost after 7 years of daily service we just went out and bought another of the same model.)

Note that what order you add the water, mix, and syrup to the mug in is entirely up to you. (Entire arguments have been had about The Right Way To Do This in our household alone.) I also cannot stress enough that you will need to tinker with the amounts of mix and syrup to find what’s ideal for your preferences. The above is merely a starting guide.

Is it fancy? No. Is it better for you than getting something from the store shelf or a fast-food outfit? Goodness gracious yes. Is it fun? I certainly think so! Among the other benefits is that I get to control what flavors I want, right in the comfort of my own home. Ask me about that ChocZero pumpkin spice syrup flavor in a month or so…