Pillsbury Grands! Hot Cocoa Rolls Review

Did you know there are health benefits in drinking hot cocoa? It actually has a super strong antioxidant concentration – like two times the amount of red wine. It has flavonoids – which, according to my non-extensive research because I barely care, help improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Although, there’s bad news, too (which I’m ignoring because it doesn’t suit my motives here): most instant hot cocoa mixes have a bunch of artificial crap in them that cover up the benefits of real hot cocoa. So, what did I learn? Hot cocoa is good for me, makes me smarter (better blood flow to my brain) and makes my heart healthy. See how awesome learning can be when you selectively pull out the stuff you want to know and ignore the crap that destroys your hopes?

So, I’m obviously talking about the new Pillsbury Grands! Hot Cocoa Rolls. And I’m desperately trying to make these sound better for you than they are. Because holy crap, these are freaking amazing. I’m convincing myself that eating all five of the rolls in the package is magically improving my heart and antioxidizing my whatever.

About 5 minutes into baking these, my kitchen started smelling super sweet – like a bakery. It wasn’t a specific chocolatey scent, but just a great mix of sugar, bread, and sweetness. I pulled them out of the oven, and started spreading on the marshmallow icing that it comes with – because duh, it’s not hot cocoa without marshmallows. I was surprised at how easily the icing actually spread on the rolls while they were warm. I normally have a hell of a time getting an even amount of icing on cinnamon rolls – but this spread nicely and came with the perfect amount to cover each of the five rolls. Of course, I wouldn’t complain if they added more.

So, now that I’ve eaten two of these, my heart feels better and I can feel the cocoa antioxidizing whatever parts of me need antioxidizing (I clearly don’t really know what that means). And I feel super smart, because the hot cocoa is making my blood flow to my brain way better than before I ate them. Pardon me if I use big five dollar words and phrases only biochemists would use in my description now.

These are freaking AMAZING. AH-MAZ-ING. There’s a nice amount of chocolate in each roll. In fact, it’s the perfect amount. They didn’t skimp on these, that’s for sure. The chocolate is sweet and has that slight tartness to it and becomes really creamy once heated. Then there’s the marshmallow frosting – holy crap this is delicious! The powdered-sugary flavors in the marshmallow icing are spot on and perfect. Combine the chocolate with the marshmallow frosting, and the slightly less sweet roll and you have the perfect combination. I was afraid that the rolls would be too sweet, and adding chocolate and marshmallow would make it overly sugary. But the rolls are a lovely dough with a great flour and butter flavor. Absolutely perfect combination right here. These literally do taste like hot cocoa.

I’m super impressed with these hot cocoa rolls. In fact, I’m MORE impressed than I originally thought I would be. Maybe that’s because my brain is smarter after eating 4 helpings of nutritious hot cocoa. But I’m pretty sure it’s because I figured that “hot cocoa flavored” usually translates into “chocolate” this time of year in most products. Out of all of the hot cocoa products on the market this holiday season that I’ve tried- this one absolutely nailed it. Plus, I don’t have to go to the gym today, because I’ve been antioxidant-ed to the max.