Boston’s Best Hot Chocolate
Where can you find the Boston’s best hot chocolate? Visit one of our top 5 picks for the perfect cup to accompany your city strolling.
By Amy Traverso|Feb 06 2018|
Accented with hazelnut, this is a great choice for milk chocolate lovers.
Credit: Amy TraversoWHERE TO FIND BOSTON’S BEST HOT CHOCOLATE
L.A. Burdick
It’s not just tradition that keeps this at the top of my list of Boston’s best hot chocolate. There is simply no better hot chocolate—excuse me, drinking chocolate—than Burdick’s.
Burdick’s signature dark chocolate blend, with a bonbon chaser
Credit: Amy TraversoCredit: Amy Traverso Why? The dark chocolate blend is almost as thick as pudding, but with flavors more intense. This one-two-three punch of chocolate is not for the faint of heart. For a milder blend, go with the milk or white chocolate, or the multiple single source varieties (Bolivia, Grenada, Brazil, etc.). And you can buy finely shaved chocolate in bags—a product that recently won a Yankee Editor’s Choice Food Award—and mix it up yourself. The cozy cafe areas in both the Harvard Square and Back Bay shops invite a mid-day meditation, though limited seating means that your thoughts may be be interrupted by impatient stares from thirsty table-seekers. Drink your cocoa straight, or pair it with assorted cakes and dainties from the pastry or candy cases. Back Bay. 220 Clarendon Street, Boston. 617-303-0113; burdickchocolate.com Harvard Square. 52 Brattle Street, Cambridge. 617-491-4340; burdickchocolate.com
Eataly Boston
For hot cocoa with an Italian accent, head to the ground-floor Lavazza cafe within Mario Batali’s massive new food emporium in the Prudential Center. It’s made from a powder mix, but it contains generous amounts of cornstarch, the same thickener used in chocolate pudding mix, so the experience of drinking a cup of this wonderfully silky cocoa runs halfway between sipping and chewing.
In flavor and texture, Eataly’s Italian-style hot chocolate resembles a slightly thinner chocolate pudding.
Credit: Amy TraversoCredit: Amy Traverso It’s dessert in a cup, albeit less complex than Burdick’s blend, which is made with real chocolate rather than cocoa powder. Still, in an afternoon of sipping multiple hot chocolates all over the city, this is the one cup I actually finished. [Note: Caffe Vittoria in Boston’s North End serves an equally thick Italian cioccolato caldo]. Prudential Center. 800 Boylston Street, Boston. 617-807-7300; eataly.com
Diesel Cafe
Where Burdick’s and Lavazza’s flavors take a darker profile, this hazelnut-scented cocoa with a dollop of salted caramel is light, frothy, and sweet. Topped with whipped cream and marshmallow, it’s worth a trek out to Somerville’s Davis Square.
257 Elm Street, Somerville. 617-629-8717; diesel-cafe.com
Accented with hazelnut, this is a great choice for milk chocolate lovers.
Credit: Amy TraversoCredit: Amy Traverso
Flour Bakery
Joanne Chang’s mini-chain of bakery/cafes around Boston all boast a hot chocolate that combines chocolate ganache (a blend of chocolate and cream) with steamed milk, chile powder, and a bit of cayenne. That last bit is a nod to hot chocolate’s Central American origins (a tradition that can even be found in early American recipes for hot chocolate), but it doesn’t overwhelm you with spice. The effect is more subtle and warming.
Multiple locations; flourbakery.com
Like most ancient Mayan recipes for drinking chocolate, Flour Bakery’s formula includes chile powder for a warming kick.
Credit: Amy Traverso
