Threads without OPs?
Believe it or not, despite the propaganda, you can make cocoa (or Quik or the equivalent) with just plain water and not milk and still have it be drinkable.
To my taste, coffee-based hot chocolate is great. (Just don’t put the chocolate in the filter with the coffee. It’s fine enough that it clogs the pores and takes forever to run through. Make the coffee and then stir in the chocolate.)
When we go to a multiplex with a coffee bar, the hot chocolate usually comes out of a packet. My wife tells them to use coffee to pour into the mix. Half the time they can’t figure out what to charge her, but she likes the mocha taste. This isn’t quite the same as the thread title, since there is almost certainly milk powder in the chocolate mix, but it’s close.
I almost always make my cocoa with plain water, and no milk in sight. Of course, I also add pumpkin pie spices to it, but that’s irrelevant.
Actually, I don’t believe I know anyone who regularly makes hot chocolate drinks with milk. Cold chocolate drinks are another matter; on the rare occasions I use Quik or a chocolate syrup, it’s to make chocolate milk.