Rob Greig
London's best hot chocolate
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By Zoe Kamen
Updated: Tue Dec 7 2010 -
The best hot chocolate will banish all memories of milky bedtime cocoa - it's rich, complex and made with quality raw ingredients. London is starting to wake up to the idea of hot chocolate as a serious drink - here's our pick of some of the best purveyors in the city
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Artisan du Chocolat
89 Lower Sloane St, SW1W 8DA (0845 270 6996/www.artisanduchocolat.com). Also at 81 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UL, where there are a few seats.
The chocolatier responsible for creating the original liquid salted caramels for Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. At the larger Westbourne Grove branch, the white shiny walls and tables look clinical but the rich smell of chocolate that greets you does much to dispel the antiseptic feel. Thick hot chocolate comes in several varieties: our favourite was the original blend of Mexican cacao (£3 in, £2 to take away). More unusually, there are also refreshing drinks made from the white pulp of the cocoa bean.
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Cocomaya
3 Porchester Place, W2 2BS (020 7706 2770/www.cocomaya.co.uk).
This fashionable chocolatier and bakery serves tiny gilt cups of ‘French’-style hot chocolate – thick and creamy, with no added sugar. The same can’t be said of the decidedly tempting sweet pastries on offer.
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Mélange
184 Bellenden Road, SE15 4BW (07722 650711/www.themelange.com).
Self-taught chocolatier Isabelle Alaya teaches courses on chocolate making from this little shop in Peckham. But the well-balanced recipe for the hot chocolate remains a secret.
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Melt
59 Ledbury Rd, W11 2AA (020 7727 5030/www.meltchocolates.com).
The 100 per cent Valhrona hot chocolate at this west London boutique is so intense it is served in small shots (£2). A light touch of peppermint rounds out the complex flavours.
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Paul A Young
20 Royal Exchange, Threadneedle St, EC3V 3LP(020 7424 5750/www.paulayoung.co.uk). Also at Camden Passage, N1 8E
Stepping into the tiny, dark-panelled corner shop on the edge of Royal Exchange is like visiting a wizard’s emporium, with a fantastic variety of chocolates lining the walls including an attention-grabbing Marmite truffle. Hot chocolate simmers in a cauldron (okay, a saucepan) and is made in the Aztec style, with no milk. A range of spices can be added to create your preferred potion (£3.95). A.
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Rabot Estate
2 Stoney St, Borough Market, SE1 9AA (020 7403 9852/www.rabot estate.com).
St Lucia’s oldest chocolate estate was bought five years ago by the founders of Hotel Chocolat. Over the years they have established an ‘engaged ethics’ programme to support growers from all over the island. Their shop and café in Borough has barrels of chocolate slabs and a range of chocolate-centric dishes. House blends of hot chocolate come in three varieties – original, chilli and ‘Christmas spiced’, each thick and unctuous. As an alternative, try the cocoa tea, made from unsweetened, less processed cocoa, shaved into hot water and milk.
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Tapas Brindisa
18-20 Southwark St, SE1 1TJ (020 7357 8880/www.tapasbrindisa.com).
This bustling bar and restaurant on the edge of Borough Market sells dark and bitter Enric Rovira hot chocolate from Barcelona. It’s a welcoming retreat to warm up in after foraging at the market.
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Taylor St Baristas
Unit 3, 125 Broad St, EC2N 1AR (07981 589484/www.taylor-st.com). Also at 1A New Street, EC2M 4TP.
This Antipodean-run café takes coffee and tea very seriously, so it makes sense that staff would pay attention to its hot chocolate too. Valhrona cocoa flakes (70 per cent) are steamed with milk to frothy perfection.
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Theobroma Cacao
43 Turnham Green Terrace, W4 1RG (020 8996 0431/www.theobroma-cacao.co.uk).
The chocolate lounge on Turnham Green Terrace has every surface covered in platters of chocolates and ten flavours of hot chocolate to choose from. The house blend of 62 per cent cocoa from dark and milk chocolate has a mellow hit of bourbon and vanilla (£3.50).
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Verde & Co
40 Brushfield Street, E1 6AG (020 7247 1924).
The hot chocolate in this Dickensian shop in Spitalfields (owned by novelist Jeanette Winterson) is a real draw. Half a bar of smooth Pierre Marcolini single-estate chocolate is steamed with milk into each eight-oz cup (£3.75).
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William Curley
198 Ebury St, SW1W 8UN (020 7730 5522/www.williamcurley.co.uk). Branch at 10 Paved Court, Richmond, TW9 1LZ.
Diners can now experience three courses of chocolatey desserts while perched at the bar of the shop in Ebury Street. There are also three flavours of hot chocolate made from 70 per cent Amedei Toscano chocolate flakes: house, chilli and hazelnut praline (£3.50).
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30 comments
The absolutely perfect hot choc is from Neuhaus, in Putney! Truly scrumptious!
The best hot choc (that I have tasted) in London is served at the Haberdashery Cafe in Crouch End. Great English breakfasts too!
I love that you've done this as a feature. Love hot chocolate and am so critical whenever I have a bad one.
Mouse & de Lotz on Shackwell Lane in Hackney does a pretty gorg hot chocolate.
Scooterworks!!!! Lower Marsh, Waterloo yum yum yum :)
Great! Next time though, could you please put all these on a Google Map so that those of us new to the city can easily find them? An embedded Google Map with pins for each location would be ideal.
Hotel Chocolat at high St Kensington serves great Liquid Chocolat made with their 70 percent dark melted into steamed milk. Not too thick and heavy as they use skimmed milk, the richness comes from the cocoa butter in the chocolate. The chilli version is my favourite.
If you live in northwest London, check out Alimentari in Queens Park. This Italian deli serves the most amazing hot chocolate - it's like drinking a melted chocolate brownie! (And comes with a biscuit too.)
Theobroma Cacao on Turnham Green Terrace in Chiswick do a range of amazingly delicous and very rich proper hot chocolates including plain, chill, orange and vanilla.
I also love Wahakas chilli hot chocolate.
How about Bar Chocolate in Soho??? 26 d'Arblay Street, London, W1F 8EP It's sure worth a try!
GAIL's hot chocolate is made using the Head chef's own secret chocolate ganache recipe ;It's so thick that it's scooped out with a traditional ice cream scoop! I am a bit of a hot choc connoisseur and can positively proclaim that GAIl's Hot chocolate is seriously amazing.
Taylor St Barristas in New Street (Liverpool Street Stn) and Richmond do an amazing Aussie inspired version - single source choclate buds melted with the coffee machine's steamer then mixed in with wonderful creamy hot milk - not watery at all....add a shot of expresso and its even better!
Bridget - Jaz & Jul's do hot chocolate with oat milk, so also non dairy, and in lots of flavours. In camden lock market every weekend.
Anna, I think for Florentine Chocolate it's meant a type of biscuit - with almond, chocolate and honey - which is based on an ancient recipe. Not sure how original of Florence it is (altough the almond could certainly mean a Tuscany-originated product) but I guess that's the meaning.
Regarding the Carluccio Hot chocolate, what is Florentine chocolate?
I've never heard of it and as an italian lady who loves chocolate I would probably know. Florence doesnt have any chocolate brand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Turin is the italian capital of chocolate, hence the famous "bicerin"(pron bicherin) drink, a wonderful combination of a capuccino and fine hot chocolate.Simply to die for.
The bicerin on its own is worth a trip to Turin.
Godiva's hot chocolate is very silky. There's a branch on King's Road.