Dairy-Free Hot Cocoa

Seems I’m not the only one thinking about how to make a dairy-free hot cocoa. (In my case, lactose-free).

Melissa Clark of the New York Times writes about her quest to make her husband some dairy-free hot cocoa; she ends up using coconut milk.

"Fudgy, decadent, slightly bitter from the cocoa and very, very creamy, it was a cup of hot chocolate good enough to serve to my lactose-free Valentine. And that’s really saying something."

Coconut is safe for many of us with nut allergies, however it was just declared a tree-nut by the FDA. Why I don’t know but if you have any question about your nut allergy and coconut, check with your allergist.

Comments

Scener said…
i've been making hot cocoa for my kid using rice milk. he loves it (but then he does not know it any other way anyway).

Ruth
Alisa said…
I read something that stated there has never been a reported cross-reaction of someone with a tree nut allergy having a reaction to coconut (unless they were specifically allergic to coconut), so I was really confused when they did this. I have come across several food allergy moms who this has caused a good deal of confusion for too. Odd.
Allergic Girl® said…
hey alisa,

i was talking with an allergist friend abt this very topic the other day as coconuts are NOT nuts but drupes i.e. fruit.

as he said: "There is a small, minute, percentage of individuals who probably have an independent allergy to coconut, but it is not from cross reactivity with the classic tree nuts. I have never seen anyone with verified clinical reactivity, just RAST reactivity which is inaccurate in 50-70% of cases."

just to confirm exactly what you just said. interesting right?
what is going on with the FDA labeling these "tree nuts"?
Anonymous said…
apologies if this is a duplicate post. Having technical issues....

I've always assumed coconut was a tree nut, because I react to it. But now that you mention it, my reaction is more like my pineapple reaction than my almond reaction. (Yes, I'm allergic to both fruits and tree nuts, lucky me.)

But to get to my point: Have you tried Vance's DariFree? It needs to be made at double strength, but then I think it makes a quite satisfactory hot chocolate. Smell, texture, taste, etc. are all quite comperable to my bf's Hershey's hot cocoa (or so he says.) I like it, but I haven't had the "real" stuff in 10+ years, and when I did, I liked Swiss Miss, so ymmv.

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