Mr. Coffee BVMC-HC5 32oz Black Hot Chocolate Maker - Automatic Cocoa Machine for Home, Office & Gifts - Perfect for Winter Nights, Parties & Cozy Evenings

We like to make Abuelita hot chocolate which is made with solid chocolate. To do this in a hot pot with warm milks seems to take forever and we have scalded several pots of hot chocolate. With that in mind my friend suggested we try this. What a great recommendation.You can use milk or water. You can use powder mixes, syrups, or you can use solid chocolate to make yummy hot chocolate. This makes about 4 cups of hot chocolate. It heats it up hot but not scalding hot. We found that we needed to let it sit for a while or add some cool milk to the mixture in order to drink it. Of course, this gives you plenty of time to add whipped cream, marshmallows, etc and it will still be hot. There is an off button and sometimes when we think it is done, we will hit the off button.One thing we liked was that it came with recipes. Some were adult versions but most were easy to make and great for kids. There was gingerbread version, azteca hot chocolate etc. And that got us thinking about other types of hot chocolate we could try in this machine.The milk is spinning around in this machine as it is heated. We did take the lid off to look at it and it did not splash out and spin out. So I suppose if you wanted to check your hot chocolate, you could easily peak and see if it's done. I don't really suggest you do that though.To use solid chocolate such as pieces of dark chocolate or milk chocolate (such as Hershey Kisses), you put the suggested amount into the chocolate basket and add the milk or water and then hit the start button. It is really that simple.Additionally the clean up simple as well.Overall, I would buy this again and I believe this will have a place on our counter during the winter months. yum.