In my own journey of trying 5 hot chocolates in this years Hot Chocolate Festival these are the ones that I chose and tried with my ranking of my favourite to the not as good as the others.
Rashomon, Django Blues and Lyric & Dagger (left to right)
1)A flight of 3 Hot Chocolates at Koko Monk
Each so different in flavour and each so unique, my favourite of the 3 in the flight as well as my favourite of all the hot chocolates that I tried in the festival is the Lyric and Dagger with black sesame white hot chocolate with lemon and lime caramel; followed by the Rashomon with Miso white hot chocolate with matcha tea and sake; and the Istanbul Blues with dark chocolate, Ottoman salep root and cinnamon; and the served in tall shooter style glasses made by Paul Dincer the master chocolatier.
Good Grief, Charlie Brown
2) Good Grief, Charlie Brown at Gem Chocolates
This nutty hot chocolate may contain a dose of Charlie Brown’s cynicism, with great chocolate, and, of course, Peanuts! Served with caramelized peanuts.
The Fluffernutter
3) The Fluffernutter at Butter Baked Café
It is made of White chocolate hot chocolate with peanut butter and butterscotch topped with vanilla marshmallows. and it is served with a housemade peanut butter marshmallow slice.
Ambrosia Affogato
4) Ambrosia Affogato at Earnest Ice Cream
Molten dark drinking chocolate poured over Tahitian vanilla ice cream. Served with a housemade salted chocolate rye cookie.
Clusterfluff
5) The “Clusterfluff” at Mink Chocolates
Valrhona Caramelia 36% milk chocolate hot chocolate with torched marshmallow. Served with a sparkle stick. Unfortunately the sparkle stick did nothing to make this a memorable hot chocolate, it was a good hot chocolate but quite ordinary compared to the others.
This years Hot Chocolate Festival is coming to an end, hopefully you will be able to find some of these hot chocolates at the respective cafes after the festival.
By: Richard Wolak