Healthier Mocha

I love my coffee in the morning, just not black! I'm always trying to find a low-glycemic way of sweetening it. Coffee creamer is awesome but definitely not the the healthiest due to the amount of sugars and calories in a small serving. Coffee syrup is just as bad for calories and sugars. Yes, there are sugar-free versions but read my previous post about the problems with artificial sweeteners.

So, I played around in the kitchen and came up with the following healthier mocha. It's based on the recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa for hot chocolate. I had already modified that recipe which called for 2 T sugar and 2 T cocoa powder because it was way too much cocoa powder.

1 T Cocoa powder (Hershey's is fine)
1 T Xylitol*
1 tsp. Vanillia (optional)
Coffee

Mix the first three ingredients in your coffee mug. Add coffee as you whisk until completely mixed. Enjoy!

Using a 70% cocoa will give you the healthy benefits of cocoa. You can play around with the amounts too, if you like more of a coffee taste, you can try 1/2 T or even 1 tsp of Xylitol and cocoa.

I have made a protein version of mocha and you can just mix a scoop of chocolate protein powder with you coffee. The stores stop selling my favorite brand of protein though so until I can find one that tastes good, I use the recipe above.

*Why Xylitol? I used Xyla brand. It's a natural, low glycemic sugar substitute that actually tastes like sugar. Stevia is another natural substitute but I don't like the taste. I prefer this over Splenda and other artificial sweeteners because Splenda is not natural but engineered in a laboratory.