Mexican Champurrado is a thick, warm chocolate drink usually made during the winter months and Holiday season.

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Champurrado in a decorative, clay Mexican cup surrounded by a cinnamon stick and Mexican chocolate tablet.

Mexican Champurrado and tamales is the best combination in the world!

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This rich Mexican hot chocolate is made for las posadas and Christmas time.

I have seen different versions, but there is none better than my mom’s recipe. She’s even in the video!

Table of Contents

1 More Mexican Drink Recipes:
2 🥣 Instructions
3 👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips:
4 🌽 Masa Harina
5 😃 Mexican Joke for the Holiday Season:
6 Atole vs. Champurrado
7 🍫 Make Your Own Mexican Chocolate:
8 🥛 Types of Milk to Use:
9 Substitutions and Additions
10 🫔 Mexican Tamales
11 😋 Hungry for More?
12 Mexican Champurrado

More Mexican Drink Recipes:

🥣 Instructions

Water and a cinnamon stick in a large metal stock pot.

Add 5 or more cups of water and a cinnamon stick to a large stock pot or a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil and simmer at medium heat for a few minutes.

You start by making cinnamon tea in a large stock pot.

Use whole cinnamon. None of the ground stuff. You can’t make it quick. You gotta use the stick.

Sure, you can find this hot drink in Mexican grocery stores but it’s so much less expensive to make it at home.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips:

Did you know if you put a lid on a stock pot the water will come to boil more quickly YES!
Be sure to make this in a large stock pot. It will be the pot you serve everyone from. Unless you transfer it to a hot beverage dispenser.

🌽 Masa Harina

Don’t confuse this with regular hot chocolate. The biggest difference: Masa harina! That’s what will create a thick drink and gives it its unique flavors.
Masa harina is a type of corn flour used in many Mexican recipes like corn tortillas, sopes, masa for tamales.
That’s why this drink is so often had with tamales. You can always find Maseca masa harina on Amazon.
Very Important! You CAN’T substitute masa harina for corn flour. Accept no substitute. If they don’t use masa harina corn dough, it is not Mexican champurrado.

Hand in a metal bowl mixing masa and water.

For those of you in Mexico, you can buy a small amount of fresh corn masa from the tortillería for just a few pesos.
Here in the United States, the best way is to make your own as we are doing here, or you can buy fresh masa at a local Mexican restaurant.

It’s seriously easy to make the masa harina mixture. Masa harina and water. That’s it!

I love this picture of my mom’s experienced hand covered with masa and all. We made gorditas that day and had leftover masa dough.

My mother is old school. She makes the masa mixture by hand. That’s the way she was taught, and that’s what she’ll do.

Add water to the masa to a medium bowl.
Mix thoroughly to get out all the lumps.

You can do this in the blender, with an immersion blender, or like my mom, by hand. I won’t lie. Doing this by hand does get messy.

😃 Mexican Joke for the Holiday Season:

Question: What state makes the best tortillas, tamales, and champurrado?
Answer: Masa-chew-sets 🙂

A cinnamon stick boiling in a stock pot.

Back to our cinnamon tea…

Do you see the color? It’s an auburn brown color and smells incredible. It’s not a sin. It’s cinnamon. 🙂

Don’t worry about this drink getting too cold. It retains its heat because of its thick consistency and perfect for the winter months.

That’s another reason why you need to let it rest for a few minutes before serving. You do not want to burn anyone’s tongue.

Masa mixture pouring into a pot with a black spoon.

Add the masa mixture to the cinnamon tea.
Then, add a little water to the container.
Just enough to get any remaining masa mixture and add that to the pot as well.
Stir with a wire whisk.

Don’t stop stirring, or it will form lumps. No Lumpy Dumpty. Or your champurrado will have a great fall.

Atole vs. Champurrado

This really depends where you are from in Mexico. People will use the terms interchangeably. However, in my family …

Atole de Chocolate (chocolate atole) – atoles are thickened with corn starch.
Mexican Champurrado is thickened with masa. And the thicker consistency is essential for this delicious recipe.

Abuetlia chocolate in its wrapper next to cinnamon sticks.

Are you an Abuelita or Ibarra fan? There is a lot of controversy about these Mexican chocolate tablets. The debate rages on throughout Mexico and beyond. Truth is, Abuelita discs are not made in Mexico. Ibarra is true Mexican chocolate.

That said, I like Abuelita better. I was raised on it, and I can’t abandon the traditions that I know and love.

🍫 Make Your Own Mexican Chocolate:

Use 1 bar of dark chocolate
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
A drop of almond extract for every ounce of chocolate

Container pouring milk into a stock pot.

4 cups of milk go into the pot.
Continue stirring.

Traditionally, this Mexican chocolate drink was not made with milk. Many people (myself included) prefer a creamy texture. Try it without the milk, and let me know what you think.

🥛 Types of Milk to Use:

You can use skim milk, whole milk, or 2% milk. If you are following a particular diet, you can also use soy milk, coconut milk, goat milk, or almond milk.

Box of sugar pouring into the champurrado pot.

Add sugar to the hot water.
Continue stirring until it fully dissolves.
Taste it. Add more sugar if needed. If it’s too sweet, add more milk.

Sugah. Sugah. No honey, honey.

Substitutions and Additions

Instead of sugar, some people will make the cinnamon tea with piloncillo. Or consider making it with dark brown sugar. There are also different ways to level up this hot Mexican drink. Some will add star anise, whole cloves, anise seed, or orange peel for extra flavor. I say, whatever works!

Champurrado in a decorative Mexican clay cup topped with a cinnamon stick next to a tablet of Mexican chocolate.

🫔 Mexican Tamales

Warm up this Christmas season with this cold-weather drink. Enjoy Mexican champurrado with yummy tamales or Mexican sweet bread. One sip and you’ll be in chocolate heaven!

😋 Hungry for More?

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