Woohoo! Yoohoo! (Dairy-free) Chocolate Coconut Water

Answer: 1920s. In New Jersey. By a paisano named Natale Olivieri.

Question: When, where and by whom was Yoo-Hoo originally made and sold.

That’s all I’ve got folks.

No cute story about why I decided to mimic dairy-free Yoo-Hoo.

Sometimes something just pops into my head and I’m off and running.

Other than that I’ve got nothing.

Clearly there’s only one real Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink but, if you can’t have dairy or corn or are avoiding HFCS give this little recipe a try. It’s a smooth, light, healthy knock-off of a childhood favorite—a sweet treat to remind us how cool it is to be a kid.

So, go ahead, be a kid again for a day. Have a tall glass of Woohoo! Yoohoo! Chocolate Coconut Water and a few Four Chicken’s Animal Crackers. 

Woohoo! Yoohoo! Chocolate Coconut Water

Mix together in a glass, heatproof measuring cup:

1 1/2 tablespoons dutch process cocoa powder

2 tablespoons Vance’s Darifree

A pinch of salt

Pour in & stir until smooth:

1/4 cup very warm (not boiling) water

Place the cocoa mixture into a blender with:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons agave nectar

1 3/4 cups coconut water (alternatively you can use purified water)

Whir for a minute or two. Chill and serve. Makes two 1 cup servings.

You can probably double or triple this recipe and keep it in the fridge for a few days.

Both 100% pure unflavored coconut water (like ONE) and Vance’s Darifree are gluten-free and dairy-free. The local grocer and health food or specialty stores, like Trader Joe’s, carry coconut water. I found Vance’s Darifree at Wegmans.

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Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt Sherbet

Years ago we had a huge blackberry thicket on our family farm. (Not really a “farm” farm—it was more of a hodge podge of large and small pets and a huge vegetable garden surrounded by fields and mountains.)

Blackberries become fully ripe during the dog days of summer—about the worst time to get dressed in jeans, a long shirt, and your old ankle high work boots. The worst time to wade through dense bramble while bees and bugs buzz you. The worst time to bake in the sun for a few hours while scratching your hands as they reach down into prickly bushes that are home to all manner of creepy crawlies.

And the best time for a sweet reward. The blackberries were half the size of your thumb, plump, dark purplish black—the most beautiful dark eggplant color—and fabulously juicy. We ate far more than we ever brought back up to the kitchen. There may have been enough to make blackberry preserves but mostly we just ate them the way they were—warm and sweet from the sun.

We enjoyed the blackberries from that thicket for many years.

I pucker now when eating commercially grown blackberries—they’re so tart. I was lucky recently and found some that were wonderful and sweet. We ate quite a few au naturel but decided to make a blackberry “something” with the rest. You know—a buckle or slump or crumble. Somehow I settled on a cross between a frozen yogurt and sherbet—a yobet (certainly not a shergurt!).

The inclusion of yogurt provides an interesting result adding a bit of a zing and creaminess to this sweet frozen confection. And, just look at that color!

This yobet thing definitely has promise.

Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt Sherbet

This mixed berry frozen confection works well with any combination of blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. I used 4 cups of ripe, sweet blackberries and 1 cup of strawberries. Rinse the berries just before starting. Clean and cut the strawberries, if using them.

Ripe, sweet berries work the best. Adjust the sugar to your liking if your berries aren’t sweet enough or you prefer a sweeter end result. Add additional sugar a tablespoon at a time, carefully tasting (it may be hot!) until the sweetness is to your liking.

Add into a medium saucepan:

4-5 cups mixed berries, cleaned

¼ cup sugar (or more)

¼ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Stir the mixture well. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The juices of the berries will emerge and the mixture will get thick.

Remove the berry mixture from the heat. After it cools, about 15 minutes or so, run it through a food mill to extract the juices. (If you don’t have a food mill push the mash through a sieve using a large wooden spoon.) Discard the seeds.

Stir in:

6 oz container So Delicious Plain or Vanilla Coconut Yogurt (alternatively, use soy or dairy yogurt)

Pour the mixture into a ceramic or glass bowl and refrigerate until cold—overnight is best but if you can’t wait that long a few hours will do.

Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

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