January Micro "Bake Off": Hot Chocolate

Let's get cozy!!!

In my nearly 2 years in NYC, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how survivable the winter has been. Coming from two places where seasons are more theory than reality (California and Texas), I was nervous to move to a place with snow. As of last December, there had only been a handful of times where I found the cold close to unbearable.

This has changed!! On the walk home from my new favorite, very veg-friendly Thai restaurant last night, I cursed my decision to wear only leggings under my usually trusty North Face overcoat as my toes nearly froze solid.

Yesterday, after going to several apartment viewings in Lower Manhattan, I stepped in an icy puddle, soaking my mesh sneakers (another poor decision) through. Stopping at Rigor Hill Market (home of hot chocolate expert Rachel’s #1 pick) was perhaps the only thing that could have fully warmed me up all the way through my wet shoes.

The $10 Rigor Hill hot chocolate that inspired the styling of all the hot chocolates in this post. Can you even with the toasty little marshmallow cubes!!

And that brings us to this micro bake off. Though I wanted to do a full 9-spread hot chocolate comparison this winter, logistics and timing proved too tricky. So here’s a three-recipe comparison for your hot chocolate needs. Stay warm!!

Recipe Overviews

Natasha’s Kitchen

This American-style hot chocolate formula is quite popular on the internet (similar to Celebrating Sweets, A Cozy Kitchen, Budget Bytes, I Am Baker, Joy Food Sunshine, to name a few). Whole milk is simmered with an equal amount of sugar and cocoa with just a little semisweet chocolate and vanilla mixed in.

David Lebovitz

The simplest of the recipes I tried, David Lebovitz’s take on Parisian hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) is simply bittersweet chocolate melted into whole milk. French-style hot chocolate is the type I typically gravitate towards because I personally love a very rich, thick yet drinkable chocolate.

Jacques Torres

Interestingly, Jacques’ recipe is more in the style of Italian hot chocolate, which is typically thickened with cornstarch. This was the only recipe I found that adds both milk powder and cornstarch to the milk + chocolate mixture. As the winner of The Kitchn’s hot chocolate taste off, I had high hopes for this one!

After distributing the hot chocolate to 5 different tasters, here were the results

With such a small data sample, it’s of course hard to take the rankings too seriously, but there was a clear least popular pick. Hopefully the descriptions will help steer you in the direction of your ideal hot chocolate!

THIRD PLACE