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Whether you’re the chocolate lover in your house, or one of your little ones is, I bet that Hershey’s chocolate syrup is a staple in your fridge. I know it was in mine!

That’s until my youngest discovered chocolate milk. He won’t drink anything BUT chocolate milk. He will go so far as to go to the fridge, open it, and pull out the chocolate syrup and a gallon of milk. Despite being just 2 years old, he’ll carry both to me to tell me he wants chocolate milk.

It got to the point, that I started pouring chocolate syrup right into the gallon of milk to save me the step (but sometimes he still insists on inspecting it to make sure that I’m not tricking him!).

I found myself going through bottles of chocolate syrup so fast that I started buying multiple bottles in a trip to make sure that I wouldn’t run out. And… then I looked at the ingredients!

Regular Hershey’s syrup contains:

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP
CORN SYRUP
WATER
COCOA*
SUGAR
POTASSIUM SORBATE, PRESERVATIVE
SALT
MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES*
XANTHAN GUM
POLYSORBATE 60
VANILLIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR

I was NOT happy about the ingredient list – particularly given the amount of chocolate syrup my little guy was ingesting daily!

After many failed attempts to wean him off the chocolate syrup or reduce the amount of syrup I was putting into his milk, I decided to find another option… Homemade Chocolate Syrup!

I scoured the internet (and by that I mean Pintrest of course!) for a recipe that included only “healthy” ingredients and was simple to make. Many tasted good, but ultimately, I created a recipe that’s essentially a combination of many others and works great for me and my family. I even called my Dad to give him the recipe because the taste reminded me so much of the chocolate milk we used to get at the diner together! (I guess they made their own… who knew?)

Here’s the recipe I’ve settled on…

Chocolate Syrup Recipe:

(…and some affiliate links to some example ingredients in case you love to shop at Amazon like me!)

1 Cup of Cocoa Powder (I plain old Nestle Cocoa Powder but I bet you could make an amazing version with something a bit more gourmet!)
1 Cup of Sugar (I’ve used Cane Sugar, but I’ve also used half sugar and have Stevia with great results)
2 Cups of Milk (1 use 1% milk)
A Pinch of Salt
A splash of Vanilla Extract

You bring the cocoa powder, sugar, and milk to a boil and then simmer for a couple of minutes while stirring. It’s really not the end of the world if you need to step away but since it can boil over, I like to stay close. You’ll notice the consistency get thicker as it simmers.

This is really a low maintenance recipe. I’ve been in a rush before and let it simmer for just a minute… I’ve also accidentally walked away and let it simmer for 4 or 5… The consistency in each case was different but it tasted just as good once added to milk!

Once you’re done simmering it, remove it from heat and stir in the salt and vanilla extract. I never measure these ingredients – too much or too little won’t ruin it. But these ingredients do make a difference!

This recipe makes a pretty big batch – you can halve it or double it pretty easily as you need to but the measurements shown above is the size batch I typically make.

Then, to make my day a bit easier, I typically pour some in a gallon of milk and shake it up. That becomes our gallon of Chocolate Milk. We also keep a second gallon of milk in the fridge for cereal and anything else you might want to use milk for.

While I haven’t calculated the cost of this recipe just yet, I typically buy products on sale or in large quantities online. I have to think this recipe is much cheaper than buying the Hershey’s brand constantly! (I’ll try to update this post as soon as I’ve calculated the cost)

If you’ve got chocolate syrup lovers in your house, I hope you’ll try this recipe! I personally think it tastes much better than the store bought kind, and I love that I know exactly what’s going into it.