A Healthy Nesquik Alternative: Kid & Mom-Approved +2 Recipes

Most adults today, including me, fondly remember sipping Nesquik® or similar products like Yoohoo, Moo Juice, Ovaltine, and Hershey's Chocolate Milk Mix. What we don't remember: the chemical storm that seems to have taken over our grocery stores and the products we grew up loving. In a world where there are more artificial flavorings and preservatives than anything else in most prepackaged products, it's a great time to look for alternatives you can either make at home or use to indulge your senses while improving your health.

Nestle Nesquik Chocolate Milk Powder Ingredient List

Is Nesquik chocolate milk healthy? The short answer: no, not really. And Yoohoo, Moo Juice, Ovaltine, and Hershey's Chocolate Milk Mix aren’t much different.

Nesquik ingredients include:

• Lowfat Milk
• Sugar
• Cocoa processed with Alkali
• Calcium Carbonate
• Cellulose Gel
• Natural and Artificial Flavor
• Carrageenan
• Salt
• Gellan Gum
• Cellulose Gum
• Vitamin A Palmitate
• Vitamin D3

What you really need from that list to make chocolate milk is a much simpler list: milk and chocolate. 

Cleaner, Healthier Nesquik DIY Alternatives

There are a few ways to make Nesquik with sugar or without sugar.

DIY Chocolate Nesquik Copycat Recipe

• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar (or brown sugar)
• 2 dashes of salt

Or, a recipe for when you'd like to make a single serving:

• 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar (or brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa Powder
• (Optional) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup warmed milk

Blend oen or two teaspoons into your choice of milk (we love cashew milk).

If you want to spic up your chocolate milk a little, add a small pinch of cayenne pepper.

DIY Sugar-Free Chocolate Nesquik Copycat Recipe

For a sugar-free alternative to Nesquik use the following ingredients for each serving:

• 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 – 1/2 Tablespoons honey or maple syrup
• 1 – 1/2 cups milk (1/4 cup warmed)

You can skip the milk and substitute it with your favorite alternatives. My kids love using evaporated or sweetened/condensed coconut milk (I know… they're embracing their weirdness).

And, as mentioned above, add a pinch of cayenne to kick up your chocolate milk with a hint of spice. Doing so is very much approved by my husband.

Cleaner, Healthier Nesquik Alternative Featuring Probiotics & Nutrition

Gut health and choosing healthy alternatives to popular processed grocery products is a very big deal in our family after my journey placing 13 chronic autoimmune diseases into remission and after my husband's journey battling health issues of unknown origin that plagued him with some scary symptoms.

We originally purchased Purium's Juice Bar In A Bag (you can see my Juice Bar Bag review here) as a means to do a simple family juice cleanse, but also grabbed a bag of the EpiGenius Family to have the kids try it after having some food-related discussions with my picky eater after seeing some symptoms indicating he needed additional nutrition in his life (plus, I was tired of being that mom in the grocery store always explaining why we can't buy the chocolate milk on the shelf). It was love at first sip! My 5-year-old and super picky 9-year-old absolutely loved it and are always asking for more.

EpiGenius Family is a healthy chocolate milk powder mix alternative that also provides:

• 1360 mg of fruits 
• 350 mg of veggies 
• Biome Medic (Purium's exclusive formula of digestive enzymes, prebiotics, and probiotics) 
• 8g of protein per serving, with a specially-designed blend of protein
• Vitamins A, C, D & E  

As a natural-minded mom, I’m very happy with my kids drinking something with so many essential nutrients and minerals. Meanwhile, my kids have been extremely happy with their delicious chocolate milk drinks. 

Ready to give the EpiGenius Family chocolate drink mix a try? Use the gift card code GracefullyAbundant to score $50 off your first purchase of over $75. Enrolling in the monthly Smart Order subscription will give you an extra 25% off to increase your savings. And, every 4th month, it is in your “Smart Order” subscription, Purium will send your EpiGenius Family to you for free.