Hot Chocolate Bar Ideas

Spice Up Your Next Festive Gathering with this Crowd-Pleasing Idea

Hot chocolate bars (or stations) are a fun and creative way to concoct all sorts of tasty cocoa creations! Your guests can create their own signature hot chocolate drinks by adding their favorite flavorings, candies, toppings, and syrups.

Hot chocolate bars are perfect for any kind of gathering – whether it be Christmas parties, birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, receptions, you name it! They are SO easy to set up, and are a hit with guests of all ages! Read on to get all the tips and tricks to create your own hot chocolate bar, and to add holiday cheer to your next gathering!

How To Make Hot Chocolate

Let’s start with the main component and star of the show – the chocolate itself. You can use any kind of hot cocoa mix. It can be store bought or homemade (hot chocolate mix recipe). For added variety, you can have different flavors of cocoa packets. As a general rule, I added 3 cups of hot chocolate mix to 1 gallon of hot milk and it was just right for about 15 servings. You can also use hot water instead of milk, but milk will give the cocoa a creamier, richer taste.

To heat the milk, you can either use a cocoa machine or you can also gently heat the milk on the stove on medium-low heat. Just keep an eye on it so it doesn’t curdle. Use an immersion blender to mix in the cocoa powder and make it nice and frothy.

Ingredients for a Hot Chocolate Bar

When creating your hot chocolate bar, the sky’s the limit when it comes to toppings, sweet treats and add-ins! Let’s break things down into different sections of the station/bar so you can group the like items together when you are setting it up:

• Stir Ins
• Toppings
• Garnishes and Candies
• Edible Stir Sticks and Spoons
• Sides and Dippers

1. Stir Ins:

These are the items that can be stirred or melted directly into the cup of hot chocolate before adding toppings.

• Creamers – Creamers add flavor to the cocoa and also cool it down for easier drinking. The flavor possibilities are ENDLESS! Some of my favorites are Snickers, Almond Joy, Caramel, White Chocolate Raspberry, Funfetti, Coconut, Gingerbread, and Hazelnut. These types of creamers can all be found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. You can also find individual creamer cups in the coffee aisle.
• Peanut Butter Cups – More chocolate and peanut butter? Yes please!
• Mini chocolate chips
• Andes Mints: Lay them out on the table in their wrappers or chop them up into smaller bits.
• Ghiradelli Chocolate Squares: These come in several different flavors and are the perfect size to melt in a cup of cocoa.
• Truffles
• Chocolate Oranges: These are perfect for those of you who like a citrus twist in your cocoa. I also love using the chocolate raspberry oranges, but these can be a little more difficult to find.
• Peppermint Bits

2. Hot Chocolate Toppings

• Whipped Cream – the spray can kind (Reddi Wip) is so convenient for a cocoa bar.
• Marshmallows – Large, mini, marshmallow bits, fun-shaped, or flavored marshmallows all work great!
• Chocolate Syrup
• Caramel Sauce

3. Garnishes and Candies

Sprinkle over the top of the toppings to take your cocoa drink the next level. These added toppings take your cocoa creation from good to great!

• Chopped Candy Canes
• Chopped chocolate bars – Snickers, Reeses, KitKat, Hershey’s bars etc.
• M&Ms
• Ground cinnamon – just a dash on top of some whipped cream looks so festive and pretty.
• Dehydrated marshmallow bits
• Milk chocolate chips (or any chocolate chip flavors)
• Sprinkles
• Any other creative garnishes or candies

4. Edible Stir Sticks and Spoons

• Peppermint Sticks
• Candy Canes
• Pirouette Cookies
• Chocolate Spoons (make your own using a mold or purchase them on Amazon)
• Cinnamon Sticks

5. Serve It With (Sides and Dippers)

Pair your hot chocolate creation with some sweet treats, including:

• Stroopwafles (wafer cookies filled with caramel, you can usually find them at Costco during the holidays)
• Gingerbread cookies
• Christmas cookies
• Danish butter cookies
• TimTams (gotta do the TimTam Slam!)
• Pretzels

How To Set Up a Hot Chocolate Bar

To set up a hot chocolate bar, all you need is a table, a table cloth, and some trays and bowls. For the bar that I created, I added boxes under the table cloth to make it multi-tiered, which adds interest to the overall presentation.

Much like a charcuterie board, you can be as creative as you want with whatever you have on hand. Cups, bowls, plates, Mason jars, cookie tins, a tiered tray, and even mugs of all shapes and sizes can be used to hold your toppings and ingredients.

Putting It All Together (Make it “Flow”)

To make your cocoa bar “flow”, you will want to put everything in the right order. Here’s how to lay it all out:

1. Have the hot chocolate at the beginning of the bar, along with mugs or paper coffee cups, spoons, straws, and napkins. 
2. Next in line, place all the things that will stir into the cocoa such as creamers and add-ins. 
3. Then, place whipped cream and ice cream toppings as well as candy bits, marshmallows, and any other fun things to sprinkle over the top. 
4. Finally, you will want to have cookies and treats to serve alongside or dip into your hot chocolate. That’s it! By going in this order your cocoa bar will flow smoothly as guests work their way through.

Themed Hot Chocolate Bar Ideas

It is easy to build your hot chocolate bar around a theme or idea depending on what you are going for. The hot chocolate bar that I made was for a Christmas-themed birthday (it was actually an “Elf” movie-themed party… Close enough, right!?), but it would have also worked for a company Christmas party or even a Christmas-themed reception or shower.

One year I made a “unicorn” hot chocolate bar with pink cocoa and pink, purple, and gold sprinkles for my little girl. It was a HUGE hit with her little friends.

You can do a Valentine’s theme, candy bar theme, or even a FROZEN hot chocolate bar in the summer to cool off! Your imagination is the limit!

There are so many hot cocoa bar ideas to choose from. We want to see what you come up with! Get creative and don’t forget to tag us at @favoritefamilyrecipes on Instagram so we can see your creations!