The recent rainy weather got us craving for hot cocoa — and we found a Korea-imported Hershey’s Hot Choco instant drink that surprisingly tastes just like Starbucks’ pricier version.

Our find at a FairPrice Xpress outlet at Esso Station along Jurong East Ave 1 costs $2.80 ($5 for two). It appears to be exclusive to FairPrice Xpress branches; we tried looking for it at a few regular FairPrice supermarkets and didn’t find any. The product is also not listed on FairPrice’s online store. But it's retailing on e-shopping platforms Lazada and Shopee at marked-up prices.

The chocolate beverage comes in two flavours: Original Hot Choco and Marshmallow Hot Choco. Both are packaged in cute takeaway paper cups in a shade of Hershey’s brown.

Each cup contains a sachet of hot cocoa premix and a stirrer. There are no English instructions, so we presume we should just add hot water or milk and mix it with the cocoa powder mix.

We were expecting the marshmallows to be packed separately for the Marshmallow Hot Choco. Instead, they were sad little lumps tossed with the cocoa powder.

Even just adding hot water to the cup produces foamy, thick and rich-looking hot cocoa. Very promising.

We first tried the Original Hot Choco mixed with hot water, and found it aggressively sweet with none of the creaminess of a good, comforting cup of hot cocoa. The dark choc powder tastes like a better quality, less malty version of Milo though. We’d spike this with a bit of cinnamon powder for extra oomph.

Our Marshmallow Hot Choco cuppa, even with skimmed milk, tastes far better than its hot water counterpart as it’s much richer and concentrated. In fact, it’s an almost exact substitute for Starbucks’ Signature Hot Chocolate, which is far more expensive at around $7 and upwards for a cup (does Starbucks use the same Hershey’s choco powder mix too? Hmm). We imagine it would be even nicer with good quality full cream milk.

The itty-bitty dried marshmallow pellets in the Hershey’s cup puffed up just a little when we added hot milk, but we reckon it’s more shiok to throw in your own bouncy marshmallows for this drink. Our verdict? Stock up on this for when you’re craving for a Starbucks run. It’s much more budget-friendly.

Available at selected FairPrice Xpress outlets, Lazada and Shopee.

Photos: Yip Jieying