Choco Lava

When I was a child, the two dominant chocolate drink products in the market were Ovaltine and Milo. Whenever I craved for cocoa drinks, those were the only options I had since they were and affordable available in every supermarket. The only problem is that they did not capture the rich chocolate taste that my taste buds were longing for. Other alternatives I had were cocoa mixes imported from America like Swiss Miss and Hershey's. However, they were expensive and were only available in specialty stores. All of my gastronomic dilemmas were solved with the arrival of Choco Lava in the market.

The product was recently launched by the manufacturing giant, URC. It has excellent quality since it is made by URC and best of all, it is affordable because it is made locally. As for the taste, Choco Lava captures the rich, deep, smooth essence of real chocolate. Probably because it has no malt, the ingredient that, I suspect, dilutes the cocoa extract in Milo and Ovaltine. Choco Lava is so rich that the taste doesn't become too bland even if you dilute it in 500mL of water (the recommended is only around 300mL). On the other hand, the balance between water and Milo/Ovaltine is so delicate that you could immediately lose the flavor if you get the mixture wrong. You end up instead with a dull, watery chocolate liquid.

I highly recommend mixing Choco Lava with coffee creamer to add more texture to the drink. But for those chocolate addicts who want the real, pure, untainted chocolate taste, then no alteration is necessary. Once again, I applaud URC for giving the Filipino consumers access to an affordable yet flavorful chocolate drink.