Hot Chocolate Map, Walk and Review

Here is this lovely map, which takes you around to a few of the choice hot chocolate spots in downtown NYC.  We went to 6 on Friday and our favorite (at least with the younger set) was Marie Belle, which serves a liquid chocolate which is more of a dessert hot chocolate than a drink. It is lovely, thick, rich and has lots of flavor.   Our favorite was the spicy, which had a strong cinnamon flavor and aroma. The runners up were panela and the Aztec. The atmosphere there is just charming, cozy and very euro groovy. We also liked Vosges which is much more modern than Marie Belle and serves a drink not a dessert chocolate. The sit down is different, at a shared table. Much more dash and go.  My personal favorite was the white chocolate drink, which had a mix of lavander, lemon and a beautiful milky flavor. The aroma was great. The younger set opted for the Aztec Elixir and the Parisienne.  Bathazar’s did not get high marks from us. We had much anticipated their hazelnut hot chocolate, but found it too sweet, with the chocolate flavor underwhelming.  But the smell was fabulous.  We didn’t sit down in Balthazar’s but stood outside and drank on the street…not very cozy.  Ceci Cela has a nice hot chocolate, with good mild flavor. The texture was smooth and we all enjoyed it. The back room is very sweet and cozy.  We also went to the Starbucks on spring street with the thought that their hot chocolate would be our control point. A popular well accepted and tested drink.  Our ace team found it not particularly good, very sweet, with a boring chocolate flavor.  We ended at the Cocoa bar on Clinton Street, which had very nice drinks. We sampled White Hot Chocolate, Mint, Spicy and Funky Monkey.  The spicy had a very strong cinnamon flavor and the white was surprisingly vanilla in its flavor. I couldn’t taste the banana in the funky monkey and the mint tasted just like an after 8 dinner mint to me.

In any event we marched the 3 children around to these places and they were great, filling out their forms and discussing the nuances in detail. I was impressed by their chocolate sophisitication. I’ve got the form below. We tried to go to Divalicious but they were closed as they were attending the chocolate show. I suggest you pick as many spots as match your stamina and get some friends together and go. Its alot of fun and of course very satisfying.