City Bakery's Hot Chocolate Festival

Maury Rubin might be our favorite man in NYC. Every year, the City Bakery owner and baker gives us a different mug of deliciousness each day for a month. This year’s festival is themed “How to Knit a Marshmallow,” and the centerpiece is a “Night of Knitting & Hot Chocolate” on February 18, at which guests can sample flavors while learning from neighborhood knitting shops. As Rubin got to work in his hot-cocoa laboratory, he called TONY to reveal how his mad-scientist mind works.

The new flavor: “I don’t have the name yet, but one flavor I’m going to do is dark chocolate, espresso, pomegranate and lemon. Coffee became a protection against the pomegranate stealing the chocolate away; the lemon adds balance and lift.”

The classic flavor: “Arabian Nights hot chocolate, which I’ve been doing for seven or eight years, is a little bit like my Cathedral of St. John the Divine—it’s never been finished. Every year I go back and rework it. There’s cinnamon, licorice, cardamom, pepper, coriander, cumin and a series of teas. I’m in a wrestling match with it. Most years it sort of owns me.”

The cocoa calendar: “It’s a little bit like the Academy Awards—where the Supporting Actress one is second, so there’s good stuff right away. The first weekend always has a popular crowd-pleaser, which is usually either Banana Peel or Caramel.”—Billie Cohen

City Bakery, 3 W 18th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves (212-366-1414, thecitybakery.com). Feb 1--28. Average hot chocolate: $5.

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