TNC Review: Sachet Hot Chocolates

chocolate with marshmallows at the local cafe. Hi, I'm Puzzi Burrows and Amile and Wood. And as two of us jay Is leading dieticians who specialize in evidence based nutrition, we bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find in the supermarket. Dan, I have never heard you have a hot chocolate when we've been together. Do you have a sneaky little hot drink after you dinner? Oh?

little bit too much for me. And I must admit the first product that we're doing as a review today, I did try. I used half a sashet only of the you know, the sashet amount, and honestly I found that too much as well. And I gave it to David and he was like, oh, what is this. So we're not We're not hot chocolate. People put it that way, but we do love our coffee and we do love our chocolate. But separately, well.

that's actually a really good lesson for people listening. But if you find you do have a bit of a what we would call addiction to sweet food, so you're on the diet soft drinks and you sort of really crave a lot of that intensely sweet product, simply weeding off over time and gradually reducing the amounts, you know, rather than having the whole count of coke, only drink three quarters, or in the case of these hot chocolate drinks,

don't use the whole sashet, and you'll be surprised. You really can wean your taste buds off those very intense flavors, and particularly if they're artificials at least sweetened, which is the one that I actually have is. But we've got three good ones. There's certainly plenty and growing numbers in

the supermarket. And the one that took my eye a few weeks to go and I sent it too straight away was this new range coming out from Naked Life, and they are quite savvy in their marketing because they position it as kind of calming, and there's a few different ones. I think there's one for energy and a few different kind of buzzwords that you often see on vitamin waters or energy drinks. And so we've got today the Naked Lives ninety nine percent sugar free calm drinking chocolate.

Now it's a six pack at four fifty. They usually retail at seven fifty. So this was something I just had a quick look at. I think Bulli's I was at. But that's not insignificant. You know, seven dollars fifty. It's more than a dollar a sashet. Admittedly a lot cheaper than a chocolate hot chocolate you bite the cafe, which is sort of three four five dollars and at least twenty grams of sugar, let's be honest. But yeah, not

insignificant in the budget spend. Certainly, if you're saving three dollars on the packet of six year, it's worth stocking up if you do like them. The ingredients that are interesting, it's really focusing on the natural aspect. The first ingredient is the natural sweetness erythrotol and stevia, so erythritol is an alcohol sugar that is undigested through the system and very sweet. And then of course stevia we know it's

a plant. Coco powder is seventeen percent, got a little bit of glucose syrup, some hydrogenated coconut, weel, some stabilizers and mulsifiers, natural flavors, corn fiber extracts, but hastened to sale, and those things are very very small amounts basically to create the consistency and texture of a hot chocolate drink with very little else in it, because when we take a closer look at the calories are very low, you know, coming at the thirty four calper serve and less than

one grams of sugar, So that straightaway tells us that these are additives that are in there, are in tiny, tiny amounts. But of course what they do market on is a few of these little natural additions. So there is some lemon in there. There's some magnesium sulfate salt as well, so linking the calm benefits to the addition of some magnesium, and certainly anecdotally we hear a lot of people talking about magnesium, which we'll move on to in a sec but you know, very smaller. There's seventeen

gram serve. You're getting thirty four calories, just over one hundred and forty four kilodols, minimal protein, a little bit of fat, you know, it's still low fat product one point six grams thinking where that's coming from, a little bit of that coconut oil in there again for that consistency and texture. Three point four grams of total carbohydrate, less than one gram of sugar, very little sodium, a little bit of dietary fiber, which is a bit random

at one point three grams. You wouldn't normally see that fiber in a hot drink, coming from the corn fiber. And then not any calcium. There's no dairy in there, but an eighteen milligram serve of magnesium, which is from what I can see, six percent of the recommended daily intake. Now, So I think when it comes to these really low coale foods, usually for clients, if it's less than one hundred kilodors per seve, I don't pay a whole lot of attention. This is slightly higher. What I like about

it is it's a natural sweetener. Would I be buying it for magnesium? No, I'm not a massive fan of magnesium supplementation. I find it can cause a lot of gastric distress. And I find that if people are eating nut seeds and whole grains and even good quality Duckt chocolate, they're getting more than enough magnesium from those natural sources. So I certainly wouldn't be recommending my clients buy this for the magnesium benefit. But there's certainly nothing wrong with

this product, and certainly it's a natural variety. Oh, you said it was very sweet when you tasted it, very sweeten.

a product I would use. I haven't recommended it, and I certainly wouldn't be based on the fact that there's a calm effect, but as a locale sweet addition at night that certainly you could add some dairy or fortified soy or almond milk to it. It could be quite a nutritious locale addition to your day. I don't really have any massive issue with it. I think with people who perhaps are sensitive to tummy distress, you do have

to be careful with supplemented magnesium. Admittedly in a whole food it's not going to have a dumping effect the way it can when people really concentrate up the powders in a concentrated supplement form. But yeah, for me, i'd give it like four out of five. I think it's really pretty good, and probably the only thing that would

hold me back recommending it would be the price. It's not inexpensive for sort of something that doesn't have a lot of calories or nutrition in it, but certainly a million times better than straw bought hot chocolates and some of the ones that we're going to look at in a sec that you can also find in supermarket.

medical or dietetic supervision. So I mean, that's probably something they're protecting themselves from sort of a legal perspective, but I just think that that's something to be aware of. So we wouldn't be giving this to our kids. We wouldn't be having this if we were a pregnant person. I think, just because it is considered a supplementary food with the addition of things like magnism in there, even though it is in a really small amount. But I must have been Susia. I didn't feel any more zen

or sleepy or calm after I had this. If anything, I probably felt the opposite of calm because I was like, oh, that's so sweet.

is going to make you any more calm. It did the opposite time you would if you had a handful of nuts before you went to bed, yeah, or did some meditation exactly. You know, if you enjoy it, it's more. You know, it's not a cheap product. And so with clients, I'm always mindful of not recommending foods that are incredibly expensive.

But certainly, then if people are using that at work over going out and buying at an expensive hot chocolate that's packed full of sugar, I would be very much prefer them to be having something like this then going down to the cafe and getting you know, let's be honest, at least twenty, if not thirty grams of sugar and a hot chocolate that you typically get from cafes. So certainly in that example, I would be preferring this variety.

And they're worth checking out there in the supermarkets, And I would say we'll see more and more from this brand.

cheaper compared to a cafe coffee. But compared to the rest of the other hot chocolates available in sachets that you can make yourself at home, it is are It is a higher price point, not really paying for much more because I think that calming effect is more sort of a buzzword or a health halo as such, so I recommend it as well. So I think it's a pretty good option. But we've got two more to share with our listeners today, don't we.

it used to be four four fifty. So in recent weeks as we've seen huge amounts of inflation with all packaged foods in general. So it's so, how much is that perserve? It's just sick. This is sixty cents per serve versus how much was the other one?

is probably I wouldn't generally recommend it. It does contain an artificial sweetener, which is nine to five one, which is a sparta which has been around for many years and is in food, and generally I tell people to avoid artificial sweetness in where they can. So the question is I include it because I just think small amounts of anything at the end of the world. But it is incredibly sweet, and I would say you don't need the whole saturae. And I do mix mine with milk, so

it does have a really nice with this one. It doesn't. I also finally, and the powder doesn't all mix anyway. If you use it. It's really got probably two good tablespoons, that's how it feels. It's only eleven point five grams, but it really is a lot of sort of powder, and I find it just doesn't mix in, especially if you've got any a small cup, so you really don't need it. And it's coming in it just over one ninety is that one ninety one ninety six kilosule? Yeah,

one ninety six kilogels, So what's that about? Forty five calories per serve, just over a grammar protein, so a little bit coming through the milk. Solids are still a low fat product with less than one gram of SAT per hundred grams, so the carbohydrate load is six point nine grams and four point one grams of sugars, so just shy of a teaspoon of sugar if you use the whole sachet, which for me is still relatively insignificant. No,

not much. A little bit of sodium actually one fifty four, which isn't insignificant I guess for a drink like this, but very little dietary fiber. So it's one of those foods to me. It doesn't have very much in it

if you have half of it. It's a sweet thing if you're getting a lot of flavor, because I think lea and the reason I like it is, you know how when you're trying to give yourself a treat or something sweet, if you try and have something that's kind of healthier, it often doesn't satisfy you, so you keep looking for stuff anyway. So if you have a hot chocolate that's not overly nice and you think, oh, I've

had it, but it didn't really satisfy me. I find myself, and even with clients, they'll keep looking for stuff anyway, whereas myself, I find that flavor profile and texture they've achieved with Jara is a really nice mouthfeel, So when you have it, you feel really satisfied. So it's not like you need to keep going and eating sweet food. And that's why I personally like it, and I also recommend it to my clients because they really find it satisfying.

And there is quite a few flavors and so if you like caramel or whatever your mint, you know they all fit into that kind of flavor profile. So for me, the benefits outweigh the negative. So it means a client's not going to eat a block of chocolate or two chocolate biskirts. They've had an enjoyable treat that's got less than five grams of sugars and a little bit of a spataime. I'm pretty happy. But I would get I get that purists would be listening thinking, no, it's got

artificial sweetener. I don't want it. And that's where it really comes down to what you're comfortable eating and recommending, and with my clients, I say to them, look, if you go to the hot chocolate section, there is a whole range of hot chocolate drinks out there that come in at less than one hundred calories. You take your pick. So if you prefer the Naked Life one, or if there's a different one you prefer, go for it. This

is a good one. I like it, but everyone's different, and I've certainly have got clients who you know, we've had Avalanche on the program before. There's also Avalanche ones which have a whole range. Now that's not my personal preference, but I have a whole lot of clients who love it. So I think for me in this category, there are certainly options. And if it means that you're not binge eating on chocolate blocks and chocolate biscuits and the like, I'm pretty happy.

more affordable making yourself as well. But I agree with you here, like we're not promoting artificial sweetness, but if you look at the ingredient list, the artificial sweetness right down the bottom. So the amount of that you're getting is very minimal compared to the previous product where the sweetener was the very first ingredient. This is a very last ingredient here. And if you're doing what Susie does and you're using only half the sachet, you're actually getting

just a really really small amount. Of course, we're not recommending artificial sweetness. We're not saying, yeah, have them, they're fine, but it's a very small amount in the grand scheme of things. And same with the sugar. People think, oh, chokho, it's got four grams of sugar per serving. It's a

hot chocolate, Like what do people expect? So again I think that's a very small amount of sugar compared to if you would go to go into your local cafe and you got the normal hot chocolate with the marshmallows added in would be no matter what, ZUZI probably well over twenty grams of sugar easily.

certainly not a better option. So yeah, I think it's good to talk about that a little bit because if people are to your coffee drinkers, they're often ordering a cheicy hot chocolate at the coffee chop, and let's not pretend for a second it's remotely healthy. And then what we did, Leanne, we threw in a random.

seventy six cents. So if this is basically a full strength hot chocolate, so first ingredient's chocolate powder at ninety eight percent, followed by which is sugar, so the first grade is really sugar, cocoa powder which is forty two percent, a mulsifier to mix it in some flavor, salt, cocoa solids, cocoa butter, but no sweetness. So if we look per serve,

it's twenty two grams serve. It's a sachet as well, almost one hundred cow, so about eighty six cowper serve, so sort of slightly more, but I actually think not that much more for what you're getting one point eight grams of protein two point two grams of fat, so it's not a low fat product. It's coming into almost ten percent fat thanks to that proportion of cocoa butter, and relatively high and saturated fat overall, but not per

serve because the serve is quite small. Thirteen point six grams of carbohydrate and twelve point five grams of sugar, so that's almost three teaspoons of sugar in that serve, So indeed, if you again halved it, and I haven't tried it, so I don't know how what the flavor's like, but if you halved it, you're getting sort of almost two teaspoons, so it's more durable. Getting two point six grams of fiber, which is a bit roundom again in a hot chocolate, I don't know where that's coming from,

and low sodium. So the position I sit here earlier. It's a bit controversial, is that, because they've also listed if you have it with milk, so it's quite a substantial snack. But if you're someone who is not is pretty healthy, you don't have a lot of added sugar in your diet, so you don't have much packaged stack food, you don't add things like honey and fruit juices to your diet, and you really enjoy a good hot chocolate drink and don't want to use sweetness. You're really looking

for the flavor. This is a good product. It's less still than one hundred calories. Yes, it's got proportionally quite a high amount of sugar, but in the diet of someone who's pretty healthy overall, who would prefer an unsweet natural product. I don't know. I'm not giving it, you know, I'm not writing it off completely, so I think it's got some positives there as well. Now I haven't tried it, but I assume it tastes pretty good if you had a golf one.

it's like anything in life. If you are really struggling to cut back on your sugar intake and your calories, probably the lower the sweet and varieties are better for you. But I'm thinking of a couple of my clients who are pretty healthy clients. They're very active, they do a lot of exercise.

active people. For kids, certainly, it would be my preference to give kids that product over the sweetened products if I'm honest. So you know, it's perhaps got a place in the pantry, and particularly if you like it it tastes good.

I don't really see a problem with it either. And you know the trolls are going to come after us as saying this, but I really think it is all about balance and you really got to take a step back and look at your diet overall, and if you are having a lot of added sugars in other places, this is absolutely not the product for you, despite being a low calorie product.

that you're just adding. And it's portion control because let's be honestly, and if people have hot chocolates that are not portion control ovaltine or milow, you're getting heaps to sugar because not doing two small tea spoons, you're doing you know, bucket loads. Like let's all be honest, we all ate milow with a spoon when we were kids growing up. Absolutely, so people don't portion control when it's in those massive serves. So the benefit of the Starbucks

is that it's still sachet for kids. But if I had teenagers or my boys and they wanted a warm drink and you had it with milk, it's actually a very nutritious then snack. Yes, relatively high in sugar, but in a low sugar diet or for very high energy demands,

or for active growing teenagers. It's so certainly a product that I could include in their diet, particularly you know, if they're keen to stay away from sort of sweetness, or don't even like the flavor of sweetness, which is certainly some people they prefer to have the natural taste through their mouth. So yeah, it's actually quite interesting. I wouldn't have thought I would give it that summation, but it's not. I wouldn't. I wouldn't have it myself. It's

a small female. Then a lot of my clients it's too high sugar for them. But you know, there's certainly people that it could be for the low calorie extra hundred colored day, it's not going to be the end of the world.

helps settle the debate as well. That way, we're only down to about six grams of added sugar per serving, which I think is a lot more acceptable for sort of children.

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