Hot Cocoa Drawers Are The Cutest TikTok Trend For A Cozy Night In
This is for those who love a good charcuterie board, who were entranced by butter boards, and who have watched endless specialty ice cube restock videos on TikTok. There's a new way to prep hot chocolate: A hot chocolate drawer. The idea is simple: Gather everything, shelf-stable, you need for the coziest hot chocolate experience, grab an organizer, and find some drawer space. What do you need for a cozy hot chocolate experience? Well, hot chocolate mix, for starters, whether you have packets, tiny meltable chocolate shavings, store-bought, homemade hot chocolate bombs, or you make your own hot chocolate mix. Put it in a container space.
Don't try and store anything like whipped cream because it isn't shelf stable and should not go in your drawer, but toppings for your whipped cream sure can. Think sprinkles, crushed peppermint candies or peppermint sticks, marshmallows, mini chocolate or butterscotch chips, cinnamon sticks, dried orange peels, little meringues, and the like. Then think about little treats to accompany a hot mug of cocoa: Cookies, chocolate candies, truffles, sweet crackers, caramels, whatever you like to snack on.
The origins of the viral hot chocolate drawer
The viral setup on TikTok comes from a creator known as Elysian.living, whose channel is dedicated to curating an aesthetic of kitchen container and ice restocks, skincare and cleaning routines, and coziness. She uses clear plastic organizers from Amazon that she fills for her hot chocolate drawer with items from Target's Favorite Day collection.
She starts with four kinds of holiday sprinkles, wishing later in the comments that she had mixed them together instead of giving them each their own space in the organizer — though there's a spirited debate among commenters over whether or not this would ruin it. She adds crushed peppermint, meltable chocolate bombs, snowflake marshmallows, sugar cookies, Ghiradelli hot cocoa mix packets, Belgian hot cocoa spoons, and various little treats.
She does catch some heat in the comments for unwrapping the sugar cookies and marshmallows, with commenters claiming they'll go stale. She assures people they won't last long enough to go stale, saying, "Listen, they'll be gone in a day [because] I have no self-control."
@elysian.living Setting up a hot cocoa drawer 🍫🥛☕️🧸 #hotcocoa #hotcocoabombs #hotcocoabomb #hotcocoabar #christmasseason #aesthetic #satisfying #cozychristmas #targetfinds #hotchocolatebar #holidaytiktok #restockwithme
Why make a hot chocolate drawer?
In the comment section of TikTok, Elysian.living also gets some hate for overconsumption, excess, and other synonyms for a general feeling of this being unnecessary and wasteful. To that, we say: If you have the space and resources for a hot chocolate drawer, make the hot chocolate drawer and be happy.
The winter is dark. There's a reason the concept of hygge exists in Norden countries that don't see true daylight for stretches of time. Hygge is the lifestyle and design practice of embracing coziness to promote contentment during the long, oppressive winters of the region. At the core of it, hygge is all about boosting serotonin and making your own happiness, according to CNBC. A hot chocolate drawer is peak hygge. When you make your hot chocolate from your hot chocolate drawer, the best way to enjoy it would be to curl up under a soft blanket with a lit candle.
Is a hot chocolate drawer going to singlehandedly solve seasonal depression? Probably not. But it's a nice little hit of happiness, and we could all use some of that.
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.