hot chocolate

moar chocolate

So I’ve been sampling local hot chocolates. Well, today I went to Starbucks because a co-worker had a coupon for free coffee. And I’m afraid their hot chocolate might be the best of the lot. It was the least sweet and possibly the most flavourful. A medium, however, was $2.94

And then I had three 30g chocolate bars from Dolfin:

Dark w/ pink peppercorns from Brazil – I’d had this one before and adored it. One of the things I like is the occasional crunch of a piece of peppercorn. It’s a nice balance of spicy and intriguing flavor.
Dark – white pepper & cardamom from Guatemala – surprisingly tasty. This one was a bit of a risk for me, since I’ve had bad cardamom experiences in my past, but it ended up being quite tasty; it did not taste at all like chai to me. Sorry to get poetic, but it kind of tasted like dancing.
Milk w/ green tea and jasmin from Morocco – I love how people have discovered that the bitterness of the tea makes it go better with these dark milk chocolates instead of with dark chocolate. It makes these (by which I mean this one and the Vosges bar) incredibly sensuous, and it makes me unwilling to eat them with any restraint at all. As for the Jasmine? That flavor was subtly there, but I didn’t think it changed the character of the bar much.

More hot chocolate

Because my data from the cafe in the basement was corrupt (I had sent a student worker to bring me hot chocolate, and so I didn’t know whether it was made from a syrup or a powder), I felt fully justified in trying there again… especially since it let me avoid an elevator ride with someone I don’t like.

Syrup!

Also, there is a hidden syrup option that doesn’t appear anywhere on the menu – I just happened to spot a jug of mayan chocolate syrup on their counter.

Today’s hot chocolate, therefore, was incredibly sinfully good, but I have no idea whether I should blame that on “exotic” chocolate or the fact that the other syrup was added on top of the regular syrup and I had 160% of the recommended chocolate syrup portioning. MMmmm!

And there was more decorative syrup on top of the whipped cream.

A+ for the convenient cafe. (but possibly not replicable)

ETA: totally replicable.

In the ongoing quest for really good hot chocolate nearby (since the best I’ve found in the city so far is either from Walnut Bridge or Naked Chocolate, depending on the type of hot chocolate you want, but I’m not popping over to either on a quick break)…

Anyway, so in the ongoing quest for nearby hot chocolate, I used a coupon for a free cup of Milky Way brand hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts (the closest external hot chocolate source. So even though I have never heard of this unholy combination, who am I to pass up free stuff I want anyway?

So it’s hot chocolate from a machine. With caramel flavor. And it’s pretty damn good. I think this might be the best hot chocolate I’ve had on this quest. And by far the cheapest.

The quest for the best local hot chocolate

I am at work, so I thought I’d console myself by buying a fancy hot chocolate (and by earning overtime, so not so much consoling as luxuriating)

Only – woe! – the cafe in the basement is closed because they are not working on Martin Luther King day.

So my other options for a fancy pantsy hot chocolate within a 1 block radius include:
– Dunkin Donuts (who pretty much just has a machine where they’ll give you the equivalent of cheap ass powdered cocoa, but I have coupons that would make this option free. Also, they are the closest)
– Starbucks (I have gotten tasty hot chocolate from Starbucks before when I was in Seattle and people were trying to brainwash me to the glory of Starbucks – no lie!)
– Cosi (most likely to have an annoying line, but also probably the most satisfying option)
– Bucks County Coffee Company – (untried, but it seems reasonable that they’d be good, ya’know?)

I will be waffling about this for at least another hour while I am inside and toasty warm.

ETA: The winner was Bucks County Coffee. Well, sort of winner. They looked at me funny when I asked for a fancy pants cocoa and did not try to sell me on drizzles of chocolate syrup or odd flavors or anything. They just made me a regular hot cocoa and charged me $2.50. That said, it was like good powdered cocoa where you get just the right ratio of powder to milk. It was light and creamy, but went down easily and is now all gone. Not a luxury drink, but tasty and yummy nonetheless.

ETAA: The next day, I tried Cosi. Again, I went up and asked for some kind of fancy hot chocolate (only not the white chocolate thing they were advertising), and again the person shrugged and offered me a regular hot chocolate. A large was $3. This time it was milk and syrup, instead of powder, but she could have had a heavier hand with the syrup. It ended up being a bit too bland for my taste.

ETAAA: Hot chocolate from the cafe in the basement. Eh – it’s a lot like hot chocolate everywhere else. I did not see how they made it, though, since I sent a student worker to get it for me. No, not quite that imperiously: I just asked if she’d mind getting it after she asked if she could go get a coffee for herself.

When did dark chocolate sexiness go out of fashion? I liked that fashion.