Cocoa in Chicago

Chicago-- land of skyscrapers, bridges, the Magnificent Mile --  and chocolate! 

I love good food.  Sometimes, though, it can be hard to find-- especially in a place that's new, or that you are only visiting for a couple of days, or visiting for just an afternoon.  

I recently got to spend a couple of days in Chicago, and although I poured over blogs of 'what to do with only 3 days in Chicago' and food suggestions (deep dish pizza, anyone?!), there was NOTHING about hot chocolate.  Not. A. Thing.

And that to me is a crying shame. 

My quest for tasting different cocoa actually came by accident---  as a survival response to a freezing teen on a Chicago morning.  My teen and I saw a chocolate shop just on the south side of the bridge on Michigan, and -- yes, being a sucker for all things chocolate-- we went in, and ordered some hot chocolate from Fannie May.   www.fanniemay.com/us/en/  (I am not getting money for this--  but if they want to send me some chocolate, I am TOTALLY on board!) 

It was HOT. It was rich.  It made an absolutely fantastic hand warmer in the bitter cold, and thought it was delicious!  They even give out chocolate samples (!) and individually wrapped chocolates to enjoy with it.  Classy, and delicious! 

The next day I went for an early walk to explore on my own.  The local architecture was calling, and while on my walking excursion I walked right past a place called Eataly... and I went in-- because.... well, I like good food!   (I just Googled it, and FOUND ONE HERE IN LOS ANGELES!!!  Had no idea-- ! Side note on why this is so exciting to me: they had a TON of olive oils, and I was bummed that it wasn't something I could fit in my one-item luggage to take home--  have you seen their decorative containers there?!)  Back to the cocoa: having Googled 'Hot chocolate near me', this place called Venchi popped up, and of all things-- was *in* the Eataly place.  Who knew? It has got to be the darkest, yummiest of hot cocoa that I have ever purchased. It was divine. (And those little one-bite treats in the bakery case were really good, too!)

Later that day, with two other family members in tow, we tried Ghirardelli chocolate.  We went upstairs, sat on perfectly placed bar stools, looked over the water....and found that this chocolate (the sea salt caramel hot cocoa) was a watery, bland mess.  To be fair, the teen loved it. I ended up throwing more than half of it away.... the caramel tasted good, though. 

On our last morning in Chicago, we tried Nutella.  The crepe was spectacular (should have ordered more than just the one to split).  The cocoa, though, was .... just so-so.  The interior of the shop was a lot of fun, and I did love the design of the shop.... but the cocoa just wasn't what I was hoping for.

I did repeats on the Fannie May and Eataly hot cocoa--  soooooo gooooooood!!