The Mornington Peninsula, Great Ocean Road and Yarra Valley Chocolateries are famous for their month-long festival dedicated to hot chocolate in all its irresistible forms, and this year’s no different. A total of 31 limited-edition hot chocolate flavours will be available to try throughout August, including a salted caramel Espresso Martini flavour, hot chocs with exploding chocolate balls, iced cronuts and dunking pastries, and wait for it... a bubblegum-pink dedication to Barbie (OMG).
Each steamy creation is barista-made with a shot of either dark, milk, white, ruby or caramelised warm couverture chocolate, served in a large glass with a giant fluffy hand-crafted marshmallow and a selection of artisan ingredients. No reservations are needed so all you need to do is drive out to one of the participating locations, pop in for a browse and try one of the eight flavours available that day!
“Our annual Hot Chocolate Festival has become a real feature on the calendar for our destinations and we just love coming up with even more decadent and over the top concoctions,” says Yarra Valley Chocolaterie’s owner, Leanne Neeland.
The revolving weekly menu offers up a tempting range of dazzling and interactive hot chocolate recipes, including a few boozy options for adults. Music to your ears if you’ve just spent a drive with noisy kids, right?
Can’t decide on just one flavour? Then the Tasting Session has your name on it. At $24 per person, it’s a 45-minute hands-on event where you’ll get to sip and sample all eight fabulous flavours. Plus, you’ll also get the chance to flex your culinary creativity by choosing from 50 different ingredients to make three different bespoke hot chocolate spoons. Take them home, dip into hot milk and voilà! You’ve designed your very own personalised hot chocolate.
Other show-stopping takes on the classic winter beverage include a dark chocolate French Connection with cognac-filled red, white and blue balls; poached pear and hazelnut; Biscoff hedgehog; dulce de leche churros; an Iced Vovo with choc iced doughnuts for decadent dunking and an Aussie-style Happy Vegemite with handcrafted caramel koalas to melt. There’s even a ‘puppachino’ carob snack for your pooch, so no one needs to miss out!
Throughout the festival, there’ll be a range of exclusive products available for purchase online, including DIY kits to recreate the hot chocolate magic at home. This year, there’s also an online poll to vote for your favourite flavour for 2023, and go into the draw to win your body weight in couverture chocolate blocks.
The Hot Chocolate Festival is on every day in August and entry is free. If you’d like to book one of the tasting sessions, which run from Fridays to Sundays throughout the month, you can reserve a spot via the website.
