Loco Cocoa

When it is cold outside, I really enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.  It brings back memories from childhood and compliments a below freezing night perfectly.  Well some company has taken hot cocoa to the extreme and laced it with 175 mg of caffeine (per 8 oz).  I pulled some strings and managed to get one of the flavors for review.



The Look:  Part of me really likes the packaging but part of me has some big gripes about it.  First let's start with the positives.  Loco Cocoa comes in a red foil looking resealable container.  On the front they have a very cool logo of a cup of coffee just standing there smiling with his/her hands on their hips.  It is quite goofy and I think it goes very well with the small time packaging.  Underneath that they list the flavor (mine is Double Dutch Hot Chocolate) and mention that it has a crazy amount of caffeine.
Now onto the negatives.  As I mentioned earlier there is 175 mg of caffeine per serving.  There are also about 38 servings per bag.  For those of you that don't feel like doing the math, that is over 6500 mg of caffeine in each bag.  That is enough to easily kill some one, yet the only mention of the caffeine content on the bag is that little line that says "crazy amount of caffeine".  I love unique caffeinated products but there needs to be either a nutritional information sticker on the back, stating the caffeine content or some type of warning on the package.
I love the small time feel to the package but the huge safety concern here is going to cost some major points on packaging.
(6.5 out of 10)


Taste:  The flavor I have for review is Double Dutch Hot Chocolate.  Unfortunately there are no directions on the bag so I had to refer to Thinkgeek.com to see how to make it.  It says throw a few spoonfuls into 8 oz of hot water and enjoy.  Well I like my hot chocolate with milk so I substituted that instead of water.  The chocolate flavor is done very well and it masks the added caffeine perfectly.  It is not the best hot chocolate I have ever had but it is still quite tasty.
The other 2 flavors that are available are French Vanilla and Pumpkin Spice for those interested.
(8 out of 10)


Does It Work:  Loco Cocoa is powered by 110 calories, half a gram of fat, 25 g of sugar,  2 g of protein, and of course 175 mg of caffeine.  As you can see Loco Cocoa is keeping it simple with the tried and true sugar plus caffeine combination.  I got a very nice boost from an 8 oz glass and I imagine that if you made a 16 oz glass you would be soaring.  I would put the kick from Loco Cocoa at about the 3 hour mark.
(8 out of 10)


Overall Thoughts:  It is a shame that Loco Cocoa skimped on listing the caffeine content on the bag.  The flavor is good and the buzz is above average.  Even the price is a huge plus at only 7 dollars a bag.  Does Loco Cocoa get my recommendation?  Yes I still recommend it as a product to try but just keep it out of easy access to children.

Where to Buy:  Thinkgeek.com