Cozy Up to Cocoa
Winter is here, and with it comes the inevitable plunge into subzero temps that test our will to socialize and leave the house. Unless of course there’s hot chocolate involved, luring us outside the confines of our couches with the promise of fudgy warmth. And Chicago isn’t lacking in superb cocoa.
When it comes to hot chocolate, it doesn’t get any richer than the drinking chocolate at Katherine Anne Confections. This stuff is seriously rich, more akin to a melted cake than your standard hot cocoa. As thick and intense as it is, you’ll have a hard time not polishing off a whole mug, especially when options like pumpkin hot chocolate and white chocolate-chai hot chocolate are on deck. Each cup is topped with two pillowy housemade marshmallows, available in flavors such as peppermint and brown butter-sage.
Another place pouring serious diligence into their hot chocolate is the aptly named HotChocolate. The venerable dessert destination peddles a masterful roster of regular flavors such as Mexican hot chocolate, medium hot chocolate infused with a hint of caramel, and black and tan made with hot fudge.
Spiked hot chocolate adapts an Eastern European accent at Bohemian House this year, where the updated cocktail list features a new interpretation of cocoa. Featuring housemade čokoláda, port wine, cherry heering, hot dark chocolate, and Aztec bitters-vanilla bean whipped cream, it’s surefire success for winter warmth.
Hot chocolate takes an intoxicating turn at Drumbar. Here, hot chocolate is infused with tequila and Green Chartreuse for the Life in Balance cocktail. Head mixologist Alex Renshaw makes the hot chocolate, then mixes it Tromba tequila, Green Chartreuse, whipped cream, and cayenne powder for a potable punch.
Twisted Spoke also borrows a page from the tequila playbook for its new hot chocolatey cocktail addition. Dubbed Mexican Coffee, the new winter warmer features Tanteo Chocolate tequila, coffee, cinnamon, vanilla syrup, and Rooibos tea.
For those who want to take some hot chocolate home, Southport Grocery & Cafe has you covered. The cafe’s housemade hot chocolate mix is the perfect pantry staple this time of year, featuring a delicately sweet mixture of sugar and cocoa powder. Pick up a pack of housemade vanilla-scented marshmallows while you’re at it.
If you’d prefer to have your hot chocolate in edible form, Glazed & Infused added a hot chocolate snowball to their winter doughnut roster. The doughnut, which resembles a sugary Bavarian cream doughnut, is a yeast bismark laden with hot chocolate filling and coated in ultra-fine powdered sugar.
Katherine Anne Confections
2745 W. Armitage Avenue, Chicago
(773) 245-1630
Website
HotChocolate
1747 N. Damen Avenue, Chicago
(773) 489-1747
Website
Bohemian House
11 W. Illinois Street, Chicago
(312) 955-0439
Website
Drumbar
201 E Delaware Place, Chicago
(312) 933-4805
Website
Twisted Spoke
501 N. Ogden Avenue, Chicago
(312) 666-1500
Website
Southport Grocery & Cafe
3552 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago
(773) 665-0100
Website
Glazed & Infused
813 W. Fulton Market, Chicago
(312) 226-5556
Website
