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  3. Best Hot Chocolate in the U.S.

Best Hot Chocolate in the U.S.

By Food & Wine
Updated December 04, 2017
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Credit: Photo © Isabel Slepoy
As comforting as powdered cocoa may be, the new class of high-intensity hot-chocolate drinks gives a cacao rush akin to eating truffles or a luscious chocolate dessert.—Alessandra Bulow
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Baked; Brooklyn, New York

Credit: Photo © Ditte Isager

Double-Chocolate Hot Chocolate

At Baked in Brooklyn, cookbook authors Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito are known for playful cakes, like one based on the malt-and-chocolate flavor of Whoppers. The pair obsess over the quality of the ultrarich hot chocolate served at their bakery, which combines bittersweet and milk chocolate and is topped with homemade marshmallows.

  • Recipe: Double-Chocolate Hot Chocolate

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Four Seasons; Vail, Colorado

Credit: Photo courtesy of Four Seasons, Vail

Haut-Chocolat

To create thick, rich hot chocolate tableside, servers at the hotel’s The Remedy Bar muddle Valrhona chocolate with hot milk, then pour the mixture over a chocolate lattice that melts from the heat of the liquid. It’s topped with marshmallows and whipped cream and served with chocolate streusel.

  • Chocolate Lessons from Jean-François Bonnet

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Clementine; Los Angeles

Credit: Photo courtesy of Clementine Online

Homemade Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Combining the thicker weight of a Parisian chocolat chaud with the traditionally Mexican addition of cinnamon, chef-owner Annie Miler's homemade hot chocolate is a year-round favorite at her bakery-café. "I wanted something that was rich but not so overwhelmingly rich that you couldn't drink a cup of it," says Miler. F&W editors also love her creative griddled, grilled and stuffed open-face sandwiches.

  • Los Angeles Travel Guide

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City Bakery; New York City

Credit: Photo © Lyndsey Matthews

City Bakery Hot Chocolate

Made from pure melted chocolate bars and topped with homemade marshmallows, this thick hot chocolate is F&W editor in chief Dana Cowin's favorite version in the country. During their Annual Hot Chocolate Festival in February, the café serves a different flavor every day of the month.

  • America's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

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XOCO; Chicago

Credit: Photo © Andrew McCaughan

Mexican Hot Chocolate

At superstar chef Rick Bayless's Mexican takeout joint, the menu includes tortas (sandwiches), empanadas and churros, which can be dipped in hot chocolate. Baristas grind the cacao beans to order and foam the hot chocolate with a molinillo, a traditional wooden whisk.

  • Decadent Chocolate Recipes

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Cacao; Atlanta

Credit: Photo © Katie Moorman

Azteca Aphrodisiac Sipping Chocolate

At her beautiful boutique, owner Kristen Hard makes amazing bean-to-bar chocolates and fun desserts like dark-chocolate-dipped orange peel. Hard infuses her superspicy dark-chocolate cocoa with six chiles and tops it with a fresh marshmallow.

  • Small Batch Superstar Kristen Hard

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Flour Bakery + Café; Boston

Credit: Photo © Aaron Constable / Courtesy of Flour Bakery

Fiery Hot Chocolate

"We have lots of rich chocolate ganache all the time in the pastry kitchen, and our customers kept asking for hot chocolate," says Joanne Chang, pastry chef and owner of this relaxed bakery-café that has three locations in Boston. "So we scooped it into the espresso milk pitchers and steamed it with milk to make our signature hot chocolate. It’s thick and rich and really delicious." The "fiery" version gets its spicy flavor from chile powder and cayenne pepper.

  • Expert Tips from Chef Joanne Chang

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Kopplin's St. Paul, Minnesota

Credit: Photo courtesy of Kopplin's Coffee

Rogue Hot Chocolate

This coffeehouse specializes in espresso drinks but also serves a superb hot chocolate that combines steamed organic milk, cocoa powder and 70-percent-cacao bars handmade by Rogue Chocolatier’s owner Colin Gasko.

  • Hybrid Coffee Shops

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Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates; Kansas City, Missouri

Credit: Photo courtesy of Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates

Venezuelan Spiced Drinking Chocolate

Chef-owner Christopher Elbow worked as the pastry chef at the American Restaurant in Kansas City until demand for his chocolate petits fours convinced him to launch his own candy business in 2003. Elbow’s signature Venezuelan Spiced hot chocolate contains steamed milk, dark chocolate, nine spices (including cinnamon and cayenne), two kinds of chiles, homemade whipped cream and marshmallows.

  • F&W's Top 10 Chocolates

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Fran's Chocolates, Seattle

Credit: Photo courtesy of Fran's Chocolates.

Fran's Dark Hot Chocolate

For more than 30 years, owner Fran Bigelow has been setting candy trends—she was selling miniature chocolate bars and designer truffles before they became ubiquitous. At her flagship chocolate shop in downtown Seattle, Bigelow combines steamed organic milk with dark Felchin chocolate shavings to make her signature dark hot chocolate.

  • Best Paris Chocolate Shops

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Tartine Bakery & Café; San Francisco

Credit: Photo © Chad Robertson / Courtesy of Tartine Bakery & Café

Hot Chocolate

At their always-packed corner café, husband-and-wife team Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson make outstandingly silky Valrhona hot chocolate. Baristas finish each cup with a delicate foam leaf design.

  • America's Best Bakeries

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Oyamel; Washington, DC

Credit: Photo © Hal Mangold

Chocolate Caliente

Superstar chef José Andrés’s modern Mexican restaurant sells his signature thick hot chocolate, infused with cloves, cinnamon and vanilla beans, by the pitcher. It’s the perfect accompaniment to house-made churros.

  • Chocolate Dessert Recipes

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Stumptown Coffee Roasters; Portland, OR

Credit: Photo courtesy of Stumptown Coffee Roasters

Mast Brothers Hot Chocolate

Baristas at all 11 locations of this cult coffeehouse (in Portland, Seattle and NYC) blend Mast Brothers Chocolate from Brooklyn with hot milk and sugar, then topped the hot chocolate with a puff of cocoa powder.

  • America's Best Coffee Bars

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Frasca Food and Wine; Boulder, Colorado

Credit: Photo © Maura McEvoy

Superrich Hot Chocolate with Coconut Cream

Co-owner Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson created a hot chocolate topped with coconut cream for his restaurant partner’s wife, Danette Stuckey, who has a sweet tooth. “At Frasca, we make a lot of desserts with chocolate or coconut, so we just kept going and came up with this drink,” he says.

  • Recipe: Superrich Hot Chocolate with Coconut Cream

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Zingerman's Next Door; Ann Arbor, Michigan

Credit: Photo Alyssa Olson / Courtesy of Zingerman's Deli

Mindo Hot Cocoa

In addition to Scharffen Berger hot cocoa made with local Calder Dairy milk, this takeout arm of the famous Zingerman's Deli features an exceptionally intense hot chocolate special. The recipe calls for small-batch chocolate made by Mindo in nearby Dexter, Michigan.

  • Secrets to Perfect Chocolate Bonbons

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Zafra; Hoboken, New Jersey

Credit: Photo courtesy of Zafra and Ultramarinos

Spiced Hot Venezuelan Bucare Chocolate with Máchica

At her popular Latin-American restaurant, Zafra, Maricel Presilla—a food historian, restaurateur and author of The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes—makes her hot chocolate with máchica, a sweetened, spiced grain blend that Ecuadorans use to enrich the texture and flavor of drinks. Spanish colonists brought this cooking technique to Ecuador from Mexico, where corn is used instead of barley.

  • F&W's Editors' Favorite Chocolate Recipes

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Mindy's Hot Chocolate; Chicago

Credit: Photo © Lara Kastner / Courtesy of Mindy's Hot Chocolate Restaurant and Dessert Bar

Affogato Hot Chocolate

Celebrated pastry chef Mindy Segal serves eight versions of hot chocolate at her dessert bar and restaurant. Her Affogato features hot chocolate topped with a scoop of coffee-cocoa nib ice cream, instead of the traditional espresso-doused scoop of vanilla ice cream.

  • Chicago Travel Guide

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Bouchon Bakery; Yountville, California

Credit: Photo courtesy of Bouchon Bakery

Bouchon Hot Chocolate

Superstar chef Thomas Keller's perfect hot chocolate has a little bit of everything: three kinds of chocolate (milk, dark and cocoa powder), whole milk and heavy cream, plus delicious hints of coriander, cinnamon and vanilla bean.

  • Comfort Food Classics

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Vosges Haut-Chocolat; Chicago

Credit: Photo courtesy of Vosges Haut-Chocolat

Parisienne Cocoa

Owner Katrina Markoff flavors chocolates with unexpected ingredients (curry powder, bee pollen) and packs them in boldly designed boxes. At the flagship boutique on Michigan Avenue, Markoff's most popular beverage is the superthick and bittersweet Parisian-style hot chocolate, made with dark chocolate and pieces of Madagascar vanilla beans.

  • Ultimate Candy Guide

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L.A. Burdick Chocolate Shop & Café; Walpole, New Hampshire

Credit: Photo courtesy of L.A. Burdick Chocolate

Single Source Hot Chocolate

At Larry Burdick's flagship chocolate café, made-to-order drinks come iced or hot with single-origin chocolate shavings from Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Madagascar or Ecuador. The cheery yellow café serves the beverages at its many tables and to go.

  • The Ultimate Hot Chocolate

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Dominique Ansel Bakery; New York City

Credit: Photo © Thomas Schauer / Courtesy of Dominique Ansel Bakery

Chef's Hot Chocolate

At his 2,500-square-foot bakeshop in New York’s SoHo, former Daniel pastry chef Dominque Ansel uses Valrhona dark chocolate in the base and the whipped-cream topping of his Chef’s Hot Chocolate. He also serves delicious French sweets, like made-to-order madeleines, and sandwiches including a gooey grilled cheese on homemade garlic-rosemary sourdough. Insider’s tip: The best tables are in the glass-enclosed garden, which is open year-round.

  • Before Cronuts: 50 Years of Pastry Hybrids

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Jacques Torres; New York City

Credit: Photo courtesy of Jacques Torres Chocolate

Wicked Spicy Hot Chocolate

Pastry chef Jacques Torres left Manhattan's famed Le Cirque in 2000 to open his own chocolate factory. Torres now runs a chocolate empire that includes eight NYC outposts. Each location serves his Wicked Spicy Hot Chocolate, flavored with ground ancho and chipotle chile peppers and loved by Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis.

  • How to Make Jacques Torres's Chocolate-Covered Corn Flakes

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Huckleberry Café; Santa Monica, California

Credit: Photo courtesy of Huckleberry Café

House-Made Hot Chocolate

Huckleberry co-owner and pastry chef Zoe Nathan has the zany, freewheeling air of a person on a permanent sugar high. "It's a huge pastry playground," she boasts of the bakery that she owns with her husband, Josh Loeb. She makes Valrhona syrup for her hot chocolate, an extravagant accompaniment to fabulous baked goods like salted-caramel bars with a buttery crust.

  • Fantastic Chocolate Desserts

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Recchiuti Confections; San Francisco

Credit: Photo © Tom Seawell / Courtesy of Recchiuti Confections

Dark Hot Chocolate

San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti creates market-driven truffles and fun, homey chocolate desserts like Quadruple Chocolate Brownies. His Ferry Building location also sells hot chocolate made with dark chocolate pistoles (disks) and topped with vanilla-bean marshmallows.

  • Chocolatier Michael Recchiuti

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Serendipity 3; New York City

Credit: Photo © Isabel Slepoy

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

The lines are always long to get into this kitschy, dessert-focused restaurant once frequented by Andy Warhol and made more famous by its namesake John Cusack movie, Serendipity. Besides over-the-top sundaes, Serendipity is known for Frrrozen Hot Chocolate—a glass bowl of blended icy chocolate served with homemade whipped cream, chocolate shavings and a straw. Is it actually hot chocolate? That’s for you to decide.

  • Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S.

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Everything in This Slideshow

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1 of 25 Baked; Brooklyn, New York
2 of 25 Four Seasons; Vail, Colorado
3 of 25 Clementine; Los Angeles
4 of 25 City Bakery; New York City
5 of 25 XOCO; Chicago
6 of 25 Cacao; Atlanta
7 of 25 Flour Bakery + Café; Boston
8 of 25 Kopplin's St. Paul, Minnesota
9 of 25 Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates; Kansas City, Missouri
10 of 25 Fran's Chocolates, Seattle
11 of 25 Tartine Bakery & Café; San Francisco
12 of 25 Oyamel; Washington, DC
13 of 25 Stumptown Coffee Roasters; Portland, OR
14 of 25 Frasca Food and Wine; Boulder, Colorado
15 of 25 Zingerman's Next Door; Ann Arbor, Michigan
16 of 25 Zafra; Hoboken, New Jersey
17 of 25 Mindy's Hot Chocolate; Chicago
18 of 25 Bouchon Bakery; Yountville, California
19 of 25 Vosges Haut-Chocolat; Chicago
20 of 25 L.A. Burdick Chocolate Shop & Café; Walpole, New Hampshire
21 of 25 Dominique Ansel Bakery; New York City
22 of 25 Jacques Torres; New York City
23 of 25 Huckleberry Café; Santa Monica, California
24 of 25 Recchiuti Confections; San Francisco
25 of 25 Serendipity 3; New York City

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