My favorite hot chocolate is from Schakolad, a chocolate shop in Plano, TX. They mix hot milk with the warm chocolate they are using for chocolate molds/novelty gifts. You can get it with dark or milk chocolate. The owner told me that each type of chocolate needs to be at a different temperature to keep it flowing. Schakolad is a franchise...don't know if they make the hot chocolate in all locations.

I discovered this place because it was listed as an IDINE location and I could get FF miles as well. :)

I'm here in Santa Monica staying with a friend. As we were driving around the area, I saw a Leonidas store!!!! My friend told me they are serve hot chocolate!!!! I'm going there today to try it out. I hope it taste like the hot chocolate at Angelina's in Paris.

francophile, as you are staying in Santa Monica, give City Bakery a try. It's at 26th and San Vicente. I hear that their hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows is outstanding. They are open on Sundays and open at 7:00 AM during the week for breakfast. You might also want to try their melted chocolate chip cookie :)

I just got some chocolate from the kitchen because I had to have some after all this chocolate talk!
my favorite type of chocolate is Key Lime flavored which I usually get while on vacation in the florida. The brand I have now is Whelstone. It is decent.

Thanks for the suggestion. THe cookie sounds great!

I went to Leonidas. The hot chocolate was outstanding. Not as good as Angelina's on Rue Rivoli, but still very, very good.

I had lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. Service was very good. As it was noon, the croissant was a bit limp which means it was not fresh. The waffle (gaufre liegeois) was great; comme en Belgique!

Ahh, Le Pain Quotidien is always disappointing :(
Do try the City Bakery. Don't order real food. Just stick to the pastries and cookies. Many love the "pretzel croissant". I do not. If you have the time, go to the Brentwood Country Mart(where City Bakery is located) on a weekday and get a chicken basket from Reddi-Chick. :) There is a nice little candy store next to the chicken place called Edelweiss Not bad for Los Angeles.

This surprised and amazed us:

Von Geusau in South Africa in Greyton, Western Cape in the wine country.
The most artisan creative you seen. For example the 70% dark chocolate with cabernet sauvignon with wine plus rock sea salt. The most amazing flavor you ever tasted or tresured, especially if you like wine.
Some of his, and wife Terry's creations are being designed in consultation with the Waterford Winery near Stellenbosch, where they also sell it.

vgchocolate.co.za

INDIVIDUAL CHOCOLATES


Truffles
Hazelnut Almond Whisky/Vanilla/Cinnamon Pistachio
Brandy Champagne Rose Geranium Cardamom Crème Brulee

Moulded / Filled
Amarula Cream English Toffee Cream Mocha Mint Whisky/Vanilla/Cinnamon Rose Geranium Hazelnut Lavender van der Hum Café Latte
Hazelnut praline Cointreau/Orange Peel

Dipped / Enrobed:
Preserved Ginger
Orange Peel Strips
Marzipan
(Above truffle range can also be enrobed)
Plain Chocolates : Dark / Milk / White Chocolates in various shapes

Different Concepts
Frangelico & Hazelnut bouché
Amaretto & Almond bouché
Cointreau, Orange peel & Pecan bouché Maraschino Cherry Wedge


Slabs (50g & 110g)
Exotics
Chilli(D)
Cardamom(D & W)
Masala Chai(D & W)
Earl Grey(D)
Rock Salt(D)
Café Latte(W)
Cappuccino(M)
Crème Brulee(W)
Espresso(D)
Star Anise
Essential Oils
Lavender(M)
Rose Geranium(M)
Lemon & Vanilla(M)
Cinnamon&Orange(D)
Lime(D)
Lemon Grass(D)
Plain
Dark and Dark(70%)
Milk
White

Organic:Dark(70%)
Milk
White
We are constantly exploring new products and trends and also undertake special orders, gift boxes and corporate logos in moulded chocolates. Goods are made to order and minimum

Their website certainly left my mouth watering. I will have to stop by Waterford Wine Estate to try their chocolates when I'm there later this summer. It looks like they have daily wine and chocolate tastings - my kinda place. Thanks for the info.

In Cape Town there is an excellent restaurant: One.Waterfront in Cape Grace Hotel: they serve a dessert which couples and matches three different wines with three different chocolates of VG.

R45. We ordered one and each got the wines-it was neat and ample.

Well, this is one thread i can't believe i missed out on for this long.. :D

My favorite childhood chocolate experience:
Growing up in rural SD on a farm is VERY cold in the winter...(think -30 below, + windchill = -50 below or more!! seriously!). Not to mention while living in a 100+ year-old farmhouse with only a wood-burning stove for heat. (not lying, and I am only 25 years old...!) SOOO.... a favorite trick of my mom's to get some peace and quiet time from 5 kids was to tell us to go outside and play in the snow while she made us hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. To this day, I have never had better hot chocolate than hers... cooked in a pan on the stove with condensed milk, chocolate powder, sugar, and topped with marshmallows or whipped cream, plus flaky biscuit cinnamon rolls... mmmmmm!!!!

One of the best recent chocolate experiences I had was when my boss brought some leftover cake to work for us, and after i tried it i had to find out where it was from!! It melted right in my mouth like fudge!! I found out it was from Marigold's Cafe & Bakery in Colorado Springs, and it was the best, beautiful to look at and even better to eat: a dark chocolate double-layer cake with fluffy chocolate cream in the center, like whipped cream, and was coated in a thin velvety milk chocolate shell, topped with the same melt-in-your-mouth chocolate shavings!!!
Definitely super, but i could only eat a small piece as it was pretty rich.
The best cake I have ever had, by far!

Also, I have found -only at Safeway, so far- some really excellent dark chocolate hot cocoa mix, the brand escapes me at the moment, however!

And BTW, I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but I've discovered that I've become a bit of a "chocolate snob" after trying so many different kinds... I no longer even look at Hershey's kisses or M&M's (unless desperate :D ) !!
i guess it's like, why waste my time (and the calories) on anything less than divine chocolate!

For great make-at-home cocoa, the best I've found is Schokinag Extreme Dark Drinking Chocolate. You can buy it on line if you want to pay more $, but Whole Foods has this for less $ than I've seen elsewhere.

Schokinag Website/World Pantry:

Extreme Dark Drinking Chocolate

Also good is Green & Black Organic Hot Chocolate Drink which is about half sugar and half cocoa/dark chocolate. Better quality than most cocoa available in the US and pretty convenient. Schokinag is better, though.

My alltime favorite is the champagne truffle from Heinemann Cafe ( http://www.cafe-heinemann.com/ ) in Duesseldorf. As well availble in DUS airport. It is of course a must try.

They were on Food Network the other night!

It looked delicious

Is this the same as the trying to be national outfit with many stores:
http://www.schakolad.com/locations.asp