Hot Chocolate!
 

Sitting here drinking chocolat chaud de Noel that we picked up in Normandy.
free trade cocoa, cane sugar and cinnamon.

Yum.

... so long as it wasn't made w/water. Blech.
I never understood why people (and so many of them do) make hot chocolate w/water. Chocolaty water?
:confused:

My favorite:
Add to saucepan and heat...
whole milk (not skim, not 1%, not 2%)
Hersheys cocoa (powder, unsweetened)
Sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I have had hot chocolates neat, but this was made with milk.

Very yummy and not very sweet.

Hershey's? Blech.

My hot chocolate is made with whole milk, Charbonnel et Walker cocoa, Bernard Callebaut shaved chocolate (milk or pure) and a little sugar. If I'm out of the Charbonnel I'll use Droste or Van Houten.

i'll drink it made with water occasionally. swiss miss mixes, commonly found in offices for example, actually tell you to use water.

so not as bad as using water with cereal in my opinion :p

Really good cocoa takes great when mixed just with water instead of milk. Milk tends to dilute that cocoa tastes. Just like dark chocolate tastes better than milk. IMHO. In general, I think US chocolate is way too sweet. It masks the real cocoa tastes.

Although, in HK once I had dark Belgium cocoa powder mixed with condense milk and shake it up with chopped ice, it's sweet & heavenly.

My favorite hot chocolate is at a chocolatier just off of Harvard Square called Burdick's. I can't afford the chocolate by the piece, so I get a small hot chocolate for dessert.

52D Brattle St
Cambridge, MA 02138-3731
+1 617 491 4340
8am-11pm Tue-Sat; 9am-9pm Sun-Mon
http://www.laburdick.com/

I always prefer my hot chocolate for breakfast. Yummy. ^

Yes, I prefer hot chocolate when mixed with water much better.

Spanish hot chocolate, thick enough to stand your spoon in, with hot crispy churros on the side.

If you want to taste good hot chocolate in Spain, there's Villajoyosa, or perhaps better still, a place called Totel in Elda run by this guy: http://www.pacotorreblanca.com/index-en.htm. Elda & Villajoyosa are both are in Alicante.

(There's a lot of bad hot chocolate in Spain too)

It's probably something of a cliché, but the hot chocolate from Ladurée on rue Royale in Paris (accompanied by macaroons for that full-on afternoon-long sugar rush) is probably the best I have tasted.

Mix these 3 ingredients in a cup (same quantity for each of them) :

Cocoa (powder)
Sugar
35% fat cream (or milk or whatever it's called)

Pour hot milk on it, yummy !

You can also make an excellent chocolate sauce for your vanilla ice-cream by heating up cocoa powder, sugar and water (same quantities for each of them again).

Hot chocolate from Angelina, Rue de Rivoli, is also nice. ;)

Some photographs are included in this mini-Do report

Paris mini-DO - July 21st, 2007

with a specific picture for the chocolate known as l'Africain

I'd say it was more than nice :) As soon as I saw the thread title, I immediately thought "Angelina"

I always thought that instant hot chocolate had powdered milk in it, so there was no need to add milk, just water to reconstitute what was already in it.

Land O'Lakes used to make flavored instant hot chocolate (or maybe still makes -- I can't remember seeing them recently, though). The raspberry flavored one (which I made with water) was soooooo good, and I don't even like raspberries that much.

Another fun thing to do with instant hot chocolate is add those flavored coffee creamers to them. Amaretto flavor is great, so is irish cream. :)

What I meant was I prefer it without liquid milk.

me too ^

Best Hot Chocolate
 

Waking up to 45F in Miami can be a drag, so I headed to La Palma on SW 8th Street (Calle Ocho) and 60th Avenue - they have a great thick hot chocolate!

My all time favorite though is the one I had in Madrid @ San Gines. You can cut it with a knife from how thick it is! NYCers will talk about Serendipidity or Maison du Chocolat in Rock Center, but let me tell you, you have to try the one in San Gines in Madrid!

There's a cafeteria in Mexico City Zocalo district that also serves great Hot Chocolate with Churros, but I forget the name.

Burdick Chocolate, Harvard Square, Cambridge!!!
For best forzen hot chocolate, go to Serindipity 3 in NYC (wait easily starts at 1 hour :D )

Have to agree Spanish hot chocolate is terrific.

I do enjoy the spicy hot chocolate at Marie Belle in New York. Another so thick you can cut it.

Vosges makes some decent hot chocolates, but they don't compare to the above.

Thanks for mentioning Burdick. I'll make a point to get there this month.

Cafe Weggen in Zurich. My vote for tops among the city's multiple excellent hot chocolate choices.

George V, Paris. Get the whole afternoon tea for a real experience.

Mike

Second for Burdick's! You can get dark, milk, or white.

Angelina on Rue Rivoli in Paris

Another vote for Angelina. It's completely decadent.

Angelina
http://www.groupe-bertrand.com/angelina.php

Dalloyau
http://www.dalloyau.fr/resto.html

Jean-Paul Hévin
www.jphevin.com

Ladurée
http://www.laduree.fr/public_fr/mais...ns_accueil.htm

La Maison du Chocolat
http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/fr...es.php?c=paris

I'll agree, but I get mine at their Walpole, NH location. Great stuff, although the hot chocolate I had at Harrods was a pretty close second.

I love Angelina in Paris; Cacoa Sampaka in Barcelona also has wicked hot chocolate, served with delicious langues du chat.

Buy yourself some chocolate abuelita or Ibarra. Prepare it as per the package instructions, but add a pinch of cayenne pepper and some vanilla extract.

Absolutely delicious

Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate With Marshmallows

Christian Constant == 6, Rue Assas 75006 Paris Metro: St. Placide

Locally, Frans in Seattle.

I can remember the first time I had "real" hot chocolate. Mrs Sweet Willie and I walking the streets of Monaco, stopped in so she could have a coffee, and out of the corner of my eye I see this thick & lucious looking hot chocolate swirling about in this automatic stirring machine. WOW !!! simply incredible.
Wish I could recall the name of the place.

Thanks to all who have listed places to try, I've taken them down !!^

+1

homepage (german)

but after a long cold skiing day, nothing beats the Sprüngli hot chocolate that Gisela prepares at our Chalet there.

+1 :) Marvelous.

Cafe Morro. I think it's on Lazaro Cardenas a few blocks south of Bellas Artes.

Si, delicioso, but you have to chant "bate bate chocolate" as you spin the molinillo between your palms to mix the chocolate as it melts into the milk.

The hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots in Paris is wonderful. I would like to try Angelina's on my next trip.

I second Angelina at Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Excellent. Order a Montblanc with it. That should be the calorie intake for a grown man for one day. ;) Very rich!

Otherwise, I have the prejudice that France, Switzerland, Spain, Mexico and Holland probably are the countries where you can get the best hot chocolate. It strikes me as hard to believe that the best hot chocolate could be had in the USA. It's just not culturally anchored here. Sorry.

Till

If you're going to Angelina I would recommend you go on the day the Louvre is closed (Mondays I believe?).

Lots of tourists pair a visit to Angelina with their visit to the Louvre since they're so close (Carousel entrance to Louvre is just across the street and to the left). Last trip (December) we went the day the Louvre was closed and it was much quieter than other days we'd been there.

Also, if you just want chocolat ask for the Salon du The, don't wait for a table in the back. We often see folks waiting for a table even through the Salon (the small tables in the front) is empty!

Some of the best hot chocolate that we have had was in Bayonne France.