Sausalito Morning by hustler of culture on Flickr, all rights reserved.
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Sometimes coffee just doesn't cut it. When the nights grow long and the days grow cold, the body craves the soothing caress of something sweeter, the embrace of something naughty but warming. Hot chocolate.
I like mine served in the continental fashion, rich and thick in consistency, something that's true to its name - chocolate that is hot. In fact, one of my favourite food memories involves sitting in a Verona café drinking chocolate so thick a spoon was required to convey it from cup to mouth.
In my experience, however, this is not what you get when you order it in the UK. Our take on the beverage veers towards the milky and insipid. A drink for kids. But what about those of us who prefer their hot chocolate a little more grown up? Do the coffee chains have anything to offer?
I selflessly took it upon myself compare and contrast the drinks at some of the usual suspects.
First up was Pret a Manger: their hot chocolate was satisfying enough but overly sweet (I know sweetness kind of comes with the territory but I don't want to be hit over the head with it), and it had no real depth of flavour.
Next stop Starbucks and, yes, I'm aware of the arguments for not frequenting this ubiquitous chain, but in interests of research off I went. And I wish I hadn't bothered. They offered an array of chocolate options, with different combinations of whipped cream and flavoured syrups, but I opted for the unadorned Classic Hot Chocolate. Which turned out to be not much more than hot sweet milk, with nothing remotely chocolatey about it and a distinctly unpleasant aftertaste.
Costa fared better - not much better, but at least theirs was chocolate-coloured (as oppose to the watery beige of the Starbucks offering). I went for an unadorned hot choc, declining the offered marshmallows and whipped cream, and it was OK, passable, but far away from the unctuous treat I was craving. Ditto the Caffe Nero chocolate, which while it looked the part, had a strangely aerated quality.
My next stop was the Soho Curzon branch of Konditor and Cook and, finally, a cup of something that tasted identifiably of chocolate. While not stand-a-spoon-in-it thick, it was deliciously smooth and creamy - and what's more the large size was the same price as the smallest at Starbucks.
By now I was tired of being repeatedly disappointed, though Dos Hermanos swear by Chocstar, so that's next on my list of drinks to sample.
Meanwhile the US-based The Girl Who Ate Everything regularly writes envy-inducing posts about NYC's City Bakery and their chocolatey concoctions, which begs the question, why is it so difficult to get a decent hot chocolate in the UK? And where else should I visit to sate my chocolate cravings?
