Eco-friendly hot chocolate options

Is it seriously still January? One look out my icily cold window at the clouds and grey skies tells me that without a doubt, yes, it is. It means I wear my wool cap, my wool coat and I add the extra blanket to my bed, but when it comes down to it, it also means that I drink a lot of extra hot chocolate.

It occurred to me as I poured the hot, steaming water over my cocoa powder this morning that while I spend a fair amount of time shopping intentionally for organic food and fair trade coffee, I still drink cheap, brand name hot chocolate out of those packets. Why? I just haven't really thought about it. So, I thought about it.

1. The Chocolate: It turns out that there are some great companies out there that go to great lengths to bring us all quality, organic, fair trade chocolate and cocoa. The best list I could find was at Global Exchange.

2. The Milk: There's no way in my book you can make a decent cup of hot chocolate without milk or cream. If you thought determining whether the chocolate was eco-friendly was tough, you're in for a challenge with the milk situation. It's easy enough to find milk from cows that are fed organic feed, but then you have to factor in issues like whether they are free range, whether they have hormone treatments, whether it's raw or pasteurized, etc. It takes a commitment to reading the labels at the store. And then if you drink a milk alternative, start your research here.

3. Marshmallows: When I realized I may have to give up on the marshmallows to find an eco-friendly option, I gasped a bit. But not the same gasp I had when I found a source for organic marshmallows. I haven't verified this, but I believe they are made by free range unicorns on a cloud farm in Atlantis.

Stay warm, folks. And sip your green hot chocolate.

Image courtesy of Jo Anslow via flickr