It is that season again: colorful lights flash brightly on every house’s door, choirs carol on the streets, the weather grows colder outside, and of course, people enjoy hot chocolate by the blazing fire place.

Having taste-tested five different brands of hot chocolate mixes, Ghirardelli, World Classics Trading Company, Sunny Select, Land O’ Lakes, and Nestle, here is my verdict:

Ghirardelli (2/5 stars) Price: $5.89 (Lucky’s)
Going into this taste-test, I expected Ghirardelli to be the best out of all five of the brands, since it was the most expensive one out of the five. I had heard rave reviews from friends, and I knew how popular this brand is. As I finished boiling the milk and putting a spoonful of cocoa powder into my cup, I expected a rich and chocolate flavor to explode in my mouth, but to my disappointment, it was quite bitter. There was not much of a sweet taste, even with putting a large amount of marshmallows into the cup.

World Classics Trading Company (3/5 stars) Price: $4.99 (Lucky’s)
As I prepared for my second taste-test, my expectations were not so high for this one. I had never tried nor heard of World Classics Trading Company before. Taking a sip from my mug, I allowed for the flavors of the cocoa and milk to sink into my taste buds. The first thing that came to my head was that this hot chocolate was better than the Ghirardelli one, but it was sickly sweet. My face cringed as I reacted to the overly sweet drink, much like eating too many brownies or too much cake frosting.

Sunny Select (4/5 stars) Price: $2.59 (Lucky’s)
The third brand was Sunny Select. Because of the lack of knowledge of Sunny Select, I was not expecting anything extraordinary from this one either. With the first two taste-tests being disappointing, I was prepared to taste yet another cup of nasty hot chocolate. Taking a sip out of my cup, I was pleasantly surprised by the tasteful balance of sweetness and chocolate in this drink. This was by far better than the Ghirardelli and the World Classics Trading Company powders, but the only flaw was that the chocolate flavor was too light for my liking.

Land Lakes (2/5 stars) Price: $3.59 (coffeeforless.com)
The Land Lakes cocoa powder not only had the flavor of chocolate, but also another ingredient, raspberry. The powder from the bag smelled delicious with the raspberry flavor combined with the strong smell of chocolate. I took a sip, but found myself disgusted by the drink. The combination of the powder and milk ended with disaster. The raspberry made the drink sweeter, but it was overshadowed by the overly creamy chocolate taste.

Nestle (5/5 stars) Price: $2.99 (mybrands.com)
The fifth and final brand of hot chocolate to taste-test was Nestle, the rich chocolate flavored one. I knew Nestle the best out of all the others, but had never tried it. Knowing that it was one of the cheaper ones, I was not expecting too much from this one. Fortunately, as I swallowed, I was met by a perfect string of flavors of sweetness, chocolate, and milk. The Nestle powder was the only powder out of the five brands taste-tested that made a perfect combination with the milk.

Out of the five brands I taste-tested, Nestlé hands down is my favorite. Nestlé was the only powder that made a perfect combination with the milk. The other four brands were either too bitter, too creamy, too sweet, or did not have enough chocolate flavor.