Cocio Mudslides

We all love free samples, right? True, sometimes they make you want to throw that flimsy little toothpick right back at the poor old lady who made you put a gummy piece of "beef" stroganoff in your mouth. But other times, things turn out rather well, and you end up discovering something new and delicious. The latter happened to be the case when we were lazily perusing the drink aisle at Central Market on a recent Saturday. A kind soul offered us a taste of a chocolate milk product called Cocio. We loved it and bought half a dozen to take home and experiment with.

Cocio is a stylish little chocolate milk contained within a retro-looking glass bottle. It is made of only three fresh ingredients: reduced fat milk, sugar and cocoa. And despite its lack of preservatives, oddly enough it requires no refrigeration and has a shelf life of several months. Cocio hails from Denmark and uses only Danish milk, which is mandated to be hormone-free. The taste is creamy, dreamy-smooth -- very reminiscent of when Grandma would make you chocolate milk using real cocoa instead of that cheap-ass rabbit mix.

And while this stuff is great on its own, our suggestion is to throw it in a blender with some vodka, Kahlúa and ice. Whirl it around for a minute or two, and you will have one of the yummiest mudslides ever. We recently served it during cocktail hour with some friends, and they went crazy for the recipe.

Though we might be tempted to call this creamy concoction a smoothie when we're having a really bad day, we highly recommend waiting until after dinner to consume it.