Vliss Diary

Looking to treat yourself or for a present for the vegan chocoholic in your life? A mug of hot chocolate makes the perfect winter warmer and has universal appeal across all age groups! There’s nothing better than curling up on the sofa under a blanket with a good book and a mug of hot cocoa! Using your favourite mug, you can relax and inhale the sweet chocolatey aroma and savour every last sip!

We’re currently working on several scrummy new flavours and have just launched our brand new Salted Caramel flavour which is now available over on the Vliss website.

Whilst it’s true we can all make our own vegan hot chocolate from scratch, sometimes after a long day we prefer to have something which is quick to make, and so an instant hot chocolate which you can just hot add water to is SO much more convenient!

But have you ever noticed how limited the vegan instant hot chocolate options are in the supermarkets? Whilst there are vegan options popping up everywhere for most other things, the options for an instant hot chocolate remain few and far between! This is what prompted us to start experimenting with recipes and to create a vegan instant hot chocolate, one which is a delicious and creamy as the non-vegan versions.

After spending much of the 2020 lockdown experimenting with recipes and making A LOT of mugs of hot chocolate, we finally perfected our recipe and launched Vliss! Our yummy recipe uses powdered coconut milk instead of cows milk (but with absolutely zero coconut flavour, don’t worry!).

So far we have launched our Original, Festive Spice and Salted Caramel Flavours, and have received fantastic feedback from our customers! A few have even told us that our hot chocolate is the best they’ve ever tasted (not just vegan ones!). Here is what a couple of our customers have to say:

“Amazing to finally find a vegan hot chocolate that you just add hot water to. Really tasty and the packaging was just beautiful. I will be back!”

“Just made a Vliss hot chocolate using the amazing Christmas present I got from my mum and we both agreed this was the best home hot chocolate we’ve had!”

So if you’re looking to treat yourself or for a gift to bring a smile to someone’s face, you can’t go wrong with our delicious instant vegan hot chocolate. From the frothy top to the smooth, rich chocolate taste, what’s not to love about it?

For an even more impressive gift you could also treat them to one of our gift sets, which come complete with a pouch of our yummy hot chocolate mix, a choice of mug, and even vegan mini marshmallows! You could even add some biscuits or chocolate sprinkles for the ultimate indulgent experience!

So just follow us on Instagram @vlisscocoaa to be kept up to date with new products, giveaways and special offers.

If you’ve been on the Internet, especially Instagram these past few weeks, you may have seen the new food trend, the Hot Chocolate Bomb.

A chocolate sphere filled with instant hot chocolate powder and marshmallows. I’ve even seen people add crushed candy canes inside the bombs too- delicious!

They’re definitely a delicious explosion. They’re so much fun to make and make great Christmas gifts.

chocolates In order to make these Reindeer Hot Chocolate bombs, you’ll need a few things:
-A silicone dome mould
-Food grade brushes
-Dairy-free dark chocolate
-White confetti sprinkles (you can use dairy-free white chocolate drops as an alternative)
-Red fondant for the nose ( you can use white chocolate with vegan red food jel)
-Edible gold glitter (optional)
-Dairy-free milk to serve

All you’ll need to melt these delicious balls of chocolaty goodness is some hot dairy-free milk. I like oat milk as it’s thicker and creamier, perfect for making the most luxurious and festive drink! Almond and soya will work perfectly too!

Christmas calls for hot chocolate so why not go all out and treat yourself to these adorable chocolate bombs. Easy to make, and fun to melt!
You’ll love them.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Freezing time: 10 minutes
Makes: 4 bombs
Medium: Easy

Ingredients
150g of dairy-free dark chocolate
20g of red fondant (make sure it’s vegan)
8 White confetti sprinkles
Dairy-free milk (enough for 4 mugs)
Vegan Marshmallows
Instant hot chocolate powder (make sure it’s vegan)
Silicone mould

Method (chocolate bombs)

1. Fill a small saucepan 3/4 full with water and place onto the hob over low/ medium heat.
Finely chop the dark chocolate and place 3/4 of it into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and allow to melt. You’ll need the other 1/4 of the chocolate to temper it.
You’ll want to temper this chocolate. Check out this amazing tutorial on how to temper chocolate.

2. Place 2 tablespoons of the tempered chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip nozzle. You can also snip off the end of your piping bag.

3. On greaseproof paper, pipe mini antlers, a line of chocolate with two on either side of it.
Set aside.

4. Using a food-grade brush, brush a thin layer of tempered chocolate into silicone moulds then place into the freezer for 5 minutes.
Paint a second coat of chocolate over the first, making sure it’s thick and covers any gaps or holes. Pop into the freezer for 5 minutes.

5. Remove the chocolate spheres out of the moulds, they’ll be shiny and firm to touch and place them onto a clean work surface.
Fill half of the spheres with 2 teaspoons of instant hot chocolate powder and a small handful of mini vegan marshmallows.

6. Pipe some melted chocolate around the rim of the chocolate spheres and attach the second sphere on top, pressing together gently to seal in the fillings.

7. Roll a small ball of red fondant between your hands, add a dot of melted chocolate to the middle of the chocolate bomb, and press the fondant onto the chocolate to stick. This is for the nose.

8. Add two dots of melted chocolate on either side, just above the red nose and press on two white confetti sprinkles. If you don’t have white sprinkles, you can use white chocolate drops.
Add a dot of dark chocolate onto the sprinkles for the eyes.

9. Add some melted chocolate to the top of the bomb and press on the antlers. As seen in my video here.

You can decorate them with edible glitter, optional but it gives a nice, festive touch.

10. Place as much dairy-free milk into a saucepan as you like and bring to a low boil.

11. Pour the hot dairy-free milk into heatproof mugs and drop in the chocolate bomb, watch it explode with marshmallows and hot chocolate powder.

Stir with a spoon, or go all out and use a candy cane. It adds a peppermint flavour too!

Store the chocolate bombs in the fridge.

Source: Reindeer Hot Chocolate Bomb Recipe