The best variety, known as Caracas, is from Venezuela. Mix cocoa with hot milk or boiling water to make a drink, or add to cakes, puddings and icings to give them a chocolate flavour.
In typical chocolate cake recipes, cocoa powder is behind the rich chocolatey flavor. However, hot chocolate mix is the powdered drink mix that you can use to take your chocolate cake to new heights.
You know those packets at the grocery store that say “hot chocolate” on them but it’s a powdered mix ... recipe calls for. Hot cocoa is usually made by mixing water into a cocoa powder ...