Designer Hot Chocolate in New York City: You Won't Be Able to Resist It

Designer hot chocolate in New York is all the rage. Not satisfied with the powdered cocoa that many of us grew up with, New York chocolatiers decided the Big Apple needed the decadent stuff. So several fancy hot chocolate cafes were born. Of course, the hot chocolate they drink is more expensive than the stuff we're used to but is it worth the extra price?

Vosges Haute Chocolat - New York - SoHo, 132 Spring Street (between Green & Wooster), New York, NY 10012 - Telephone: 212-625-2929

Vosges Haute Chocolat has three different flavors of hot chocolate. The spicy hot chocolate with chili peppers, the dark chocolate with vanilla bean and the white chocolate with lemon myrtle, lavender and vanilla. They also sell packets of the three flavors (either alone or in a mixed box), that you can take home and make yourself a soothing bedtime hot chocolate. The Vosges Haute Chocolat has an exceptional designer hot chocolate. It's smoother than some of the others, not as dense (some are too much like chocolate pudding), and not as sickly sweet. Not the perfect hot chocolate, but pretty darn close.

MarieBelle Fine Treats and Chocolate, 484 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 Tel: 212.925.6999

MarieBelle, unlike many of the other designer hot chocolate makers, makes her delicious hot chocolate with water and not milk. It's made with pure chocolate and comes in four flavors and three sizes. The flavors are Aztec, Dark, Café Negro (with coffee), and Spicy (with cinnamon and nutmeg). The sizes start at $3 for a teeny tiny one and go up to $8 - a bit steep for a hot chocolate, I think. MarieBelle's designer hot chocolate is supremely delicious but, because it is so thick, the small size is all I can handle. The texture is much more like a pudding than a drink, and very rich, so unlike other chocolatier's designer hot chocolate, MarieBelle's is one I can only drink infrequently. It is delicious, but a little too rich for my taste.

Jacques Torres Chocolate, 350 Hudson at King Street, New York, NY - Telephone:212.414.2462