I think some of the confusion here arises from a difference in British American English In Britain a hot chocolate drink such as Cadbury s Drinking Chocolate would never be sold as hot cocoa Hot cocoa in the UK is a different drink made directly from powdered cocoa which generally needs to be sweetened by adding sugar As the hot chocolate article points out the terms hot chocolate and hot cocoa are used interchangeably in the US even on the packaging of brands such as Swiss Miss