This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of CocoaVia® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
This chocolate espresso coconut smoothie is the perfect afternoon treat and pick me up.
Every day around 3-4pm I hit a wall. It’s like clockwork because it doesn’t matter what day, what I ate, what I’m doing, come 3pm all I want to do is take a nap. Except I don’t really do naps because I can never fall asleep once I start thinking about how soon I have to get back up. Ugh…
To exacerbate the issue, I’ve been working out at 3pm lately and the last thing I want to do is walk into crossfit feeling like I’m about to fall asleep.
Enter espresso. My lifeline.
I’ve been throwing back the good stuff lately either solo, mixed with some milk or most recently, in this smoothie and I have to say, when you mix it with chocolate and coconut it’s pretty legit.
Normally, I’ll add cocoa powder but lately, I’ve been adding a packet of the sweetened chocolate CocoaVia® instead to get the added Benefits of Cocoa Flavanols.
Everyone thinks the darker the chocolate, the better it is for you but the truth is, the cocoa flavanols are where the true benefits come from. CocoaVia® guarantees the highest concentration of cocoa flavanols in supplement form.
Cocoa flavanols are naturally found in cocoa beans and can help support your cardiovascular system and exercise performance. I’ll take both of those for crossfit workouts, please.
You can add the CocoaVia® packets to oats, coffee, yogurt, protein shakes, etc. but I happen to be loving it in this smoothie.
See ya, 3pm slump.
Chocolate Espresso Coconut Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 ounces brewed espresso
- 1 packet CocoaVia® dark chocolate sweetened
- 1 tablespoon coconut butter
- pinch of kosher salt
- liquid sweetener of choice, optional
- handful of ice
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
I’m surprised that you are promoting a product that has sucralose and carageenan in it.
Neither of those ingredients are things I’m too concerned with in the quantities I eat them. I drink almond milk and coconut milk which both have carageenan and I’m not really sold on any negative affects of sucralose so it’s not really an issue for me.
These are so welcome over at my house…it’s HOT and a delicious chocolate-y smoothie is needed!
I maybe even prefer this smoothie instead of my morning coffee :)
loving the sound of this smoothie.. you can never go wrong with chocolate, coconut and espresso together. i can imagine how good it must have tasted!
Awesome recipe. I’ve been making a lot of green smoothies lately but this would be great to try.
I need this drink…now ;)
Anything with coffee I will try!! This looks great. Coffee and Chocolate is so classically WONDERFUL! :)
Love chocolate coconut everything. Could totally down this for breakfast right now. Pinned to our Coconut Obsession board. :)
Happy Monday!
It’s still 95 degrees here…this looks so refreshing! Especially around 3 pm when my second wind needs to kick in for round two of the day. Thanks for sharing!
I have been dying to try the cocoa via and you have convinced me it needs to happen! Those afternoon walls really stink…found my resolution. Yum!