Not your basic cup: Hot Chocolate Vancouver elevates the drink's art, to February 14
The 2021 edition features creative indulgences in the form of 87 flavours
Baker & Table Café & Bakery’s Better Than Anybody is a dreamy drink made of matcha sakura white chocolate served with sakura macarons with yuzu cream.
Hot Chocolate Vancouver runs at 39 cafes, shops, and eateries until February 14.
THERE’S MUCH MORE to hot chocolate in Vancouver than a cup of basic cocoa with a couple of marshmallows on top.
Launch in 2011, Hot Chocolate Vancouver shows just how creative local culinary talents are when it comes to this sweet wintry staple. For 2021, there are 87 wildly diverse flavours available at 39 places.
Consider Baker & Table Café & Bakery, which focuses on Japanese pastries and buns and is doing a few flavours for the 2021 edition. Its Better Than Anybody is a dreamy drink made of matcha sakura white chocolate served with a sakura macaron with yuzu cream.
Among the variations at giovane café is its playful Pistachio Mustaschio, which takes its name from the moustache-like chocolatey foam you get with every sip. It’s a blend of orange and pistachio condensed milk with steamed hot chocolate that’s dusted with pistachio powder and served with a chocolate pistachio cantucci (biscotti).
Doughgirls’ Road to Zanzibar features dark chocolate with passion fruit, spices, and creamy toasted coconut to sip with a tropical spice cake.
Blue Hat Bakery-Café at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts is participating in the fest for the first time, with three versions. A Spicy French Kiss consists of Dark Side Or Noir 69% chocolate with a hint of espelette pepper; it’s accompanied by gluten-free quinoa-and-nut s’more cookie.
Bjorn Bar Bakery, Glenburn Soda Fountain, Beta 5 Chocolates, Fife Bakery, and Cadeaux Bakery are among the other places taking part.
Giovane café’s Pistachio Mustaschio.
The annual chocolate extravaganza grew out of the popularity of seasonal drinks being offered at large coffee chains. Think lattes with pumpkin spice or eggnog flavours. Similar idea here, only the participating vendors are mostly small, local operations. When Vancouver’s wettest, darkest days of the year hit, the art of drinking chocolate comes out.
What’s different this year, given the times, is that all hot chocolates will be available for take out, and most vendors will be offering takeout only; others have DIY hot-chocolate kits. Many have vegan options. Some outlets will be providing price discounts to front-line medical and hospital staff.
Donations to the event’s partner charities is on a voluntary basis for participating vendors this year. Those charitable beneficiaries are the Downtown Eastside Women’s Job Training Program of the PHS Community Services Society, run by East Van Roasters; Vancouver Farmers Markets’ Fresh to Families Fund (which helps low-income families access fresh food); and Growing Chefs!, which pairs chef and community volunteers with elementary school classrooms to grow vegetable gardens, have cooking lessons, and get kids excited about healthy food and food systems.
More information is at Hot Chocolate Fest.
Blue Hat Bakery-Café at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts’s A Spicy French Kiss.
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