I decided to sit down and watch a film with a cup of hot chocolate.
What could possibly go wrong? Firstly the film I decided to watch (The Shape of Things - free DVD from... well, I'll tell you at the end after you've read my review. It shall be your treat!) was possibly the most boring film ever made. Secondly the hot chocolate sachet (also free) contained, pretty much, brown food colouring with gritty bits. The sitting down bit went swimmingly though. One could be led to believe, from the above, that free things are generally rubbish - but this isn't true. The only other conclusion to be drawn is that Neil LaBute does not make good films, and that Horlicks does not make good hot chocolate.
Having hunted around my cupboards for some hot chocolate I stumbled upon a sachet of Horlicks Extra Light hot chocolate which I'd received free a while ago. So, I boiled the kettle, got out my cup, and read the packaging. The design of the packaging is pretty much the same as that for the tub which you can see above, except mine came in a sachet not a tub. There's a picture of a cloud with a moon peeping out on the front of the packet, which suggests that drinking this hot chocolate will get you ready for bed and help you sleep. 54 mins after drinking the hot chocolate I was still wide awake... 1:16 mins still wide awake...! 'Pretty precise timings', I hear you say. Well, that's because the film was so dull I was checking the DVD player to see how long was left! Yes, turning of f the film would have been the sensible option, but I hear it has a good ending. I didn't get that far!
~ Low Calorie ~
Anyway... back to the drink! The packaging also states that there is only 40 calories per drink. Compared to the 212 (12% RDA!!!) stated on my Lucozade can, I'd say this was pretty good going. Though with all things 'Light', 'Extra Light', 'Diet', 'Low Fat', 'Low Calorie', 'Low Sugar' options, there is a tendency for the taste to be reduced, though not always. In this case that was true. Well, I can't comment on whether the taste was 'reduced' as I've never had full fat Horlicks, but I can quite truthfully say the taste of chocolate was minimal, if there at all! Ignoring the lumpy bits for the moment, the drink tasted of nothing really. I usually drink Cadbury's hot chocolate as there's a strong taste of chocolate, and the drink normally has a thicker consistency than water. My Horlicks hot chocolate had the consistency of water and a very faint taste of questionable chocolate.
~ The Smell ~
The sachet contained 11g of hot chocolate powder (the average serving apparently), which did fill a good fifth of my cup when I tipped it in. I was debating whether to take some out as it seemed like a lot of chocolate powder, but I decided to leave it. The powder is like any other powder really - there's a fine dust as you 'play' with the powder, but you get that with any powder. The powder didn't really smell of chocolate, but then I didn't put my nose too close to the powder! (My friend decided it would be funny to sniff chocolate powder (don't ask!) and found it most unpleasant with a burning sensation in his nose and throat! Top tip for the day - don't sniff chocolate powder!).
I poured in the hot water as directed and stirred. The powder seemed to dissolve slower than other hot chocolate powders do. I gave up with plain old stirring, and opted for trying to fold the powder into the water. After a few minutes stirring I managed to get rid of most of the lumps, but there were still some floating in my cup - nice! Once the drink's been made there's still no real smell of chocolate. You know those naff 'chocolate' balls you can buy at Christmas that don't taste of real chocolate but just some fake, slightly crumbly, artificial chocolate? Well it smelt like that.
~ The Texture and Taste ~
The texture of the hot chocolate was slightly grainy and water like. The taste wasn't impressive at all. It really was like hot water with a hint of fake chocolate. I still drink the whole cup mind you. It wasn't offensive tasting, it just didn't taste like proper hot chocolate. I suppose if you find normal hot chocolate quite sweet then maybe this is an option to try as it wasn't overly sweet.
Normally I find that there's a lump of powder left at the bottom of my drink, but this wasn't the case with Horlicks. The lumps seemed to float to the surface, so that the whole time you were drinking you'd get these little lumps floating in the cup, but when you get to the end of your drink there's no nasty lumps lurking at the bottom. This is one good thing going for Horlicks, as you don't really notice the little lumps too much as you're drinking.
~ Conclusion ~
This hot chocolate isn't offensive, it just isn't a very good hot chocolate compared to other brands such as Cadbury's. The extra light version has only 40 calories per drink, which isn't bad going, but the taste isn't great and the texture has a lot to be desired. Also, despite the pretty moon on the packet implying you'll be fast asleep after drinking this, Horlicks hot chocolate did nothing to make me feel even slightly sleepy!
You can buy a 220g tub of Horlicks Extra Light Malt Chocolate for £2.30, or a 11g sachet for 25p both from Tescos.
~ Free stuff ~
You can get a free sachet of Horlicks Extra Light Malt Chocolate from: https://www.horlicks.co.uk/secure/sample.asp x should you so desire.
You can get a free DVD from: http://tinyurl.com/4n7jrg They have quite a few DVDs to choose from, some known some unknown. All they ask is that you fill in a questionnaire, skipping questions you don't want to answer. Then they send out your DVD within a week, which comes packaged as you'd expect a shop bought to DVD to be.
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