Kopplin's
Our first stop was Kopplin's, all the way across the river. It was delightfully warm, humid with steamed up windows even, and the three baristas totally played along when Twirly Skirt and I told them about our planned adventure, my horrible failure at making some gluten free peanut butter cookies (don't do it, they make a puddle of goo and are gross to boot), and were generally happy to chat all the while promoting their beautiful pastries and hot chocolate. I loved it that they played along with our craziness and was glad to know that they read food blogs and knew they were on the list for Best Of hot chocolates. They told us that we'd probably want to stop right there and not head to any of our other destinations, which all three of us were thinking as well. We got a regular hot chocolate and a dark hot chocolate, plus a cookie because it was gluten free and from Rustica so it was going to be scrumptious. Both hot chocolates were rich, think, and delicious but were a little flat to me. I wanted to put cinnamon in both, especially the dark and I went to find some but all they had was sugar ans Stevia. I had to hide my mission failure by getting 1000 napkins. Boo. I was impressed by the thickness and real live hearty chocolatey-ness of both and we were off to a great start.
Cafe Latte
We all admitted when arriving that we were surprised to see Cafe Latte on the list. The place is known for sweets and kind of a high end fast food atmosphere; it mostly is noisy, chaotic, reminds me of my 2nd worst boyfriend ever, and stresses me out but we were willing to give it a go. There were a zillion flavors so we went with the generic hot chocolate, Nutella (per request of Twirly Skirt), and the Swiss Almond something that Sweet Rush would skip Sunday school to drink. The servers did not play along when we told them about our hot chocolate tour, they had no idea that they were featured in the City Pages or anything, but they were probably just two of many making their hot chocolate out of water and powder who worked there. The hot chocolates were so pretty, probably the most aesthetically pleasing of the day but SO gross. Oversweetened, overhyped and seriously just gross. We did not finish any of them and took many sips followed by "I don't know why I'm drinking this!" They tasted like hot chocolate for spoiled children. Awful. The most palatable to me was the Almond thingy, but ew, it was like eating McDonalds. We didn't finish any of them, not even half of at least 2 of them. Ugh, I don't even like to think of it.
Segue Cafe
After the stress and disgust of Cafe Latte, we were so relieved, relaxed and happy at the Segue Cafe. We were also really sugared up at this stop and the awesome barista (who was sporting an I Love Waffles belt!) was fun, indulged our silliness and was very helpful in our buzzing confusion about whipped cream. We got a regular hot chocolate and a Mexican because I can't not get anything Mexican to honor my roots and generally be obnoxious. Also, I love the flavors they call "Mexican" cinnamon spice yumminess. We settled into what seemed to me a typical 1990s college coffee shop and drank some very, very delicious and satisfying hot chocolate. The Mexican was incredible, easily my second favorite and the plain hot chocolate was almost equally as good. It was sweet and rich and scrumptious. Absolutely wonderful! These were the first two hot chocolates we finished completely, they were that wonderful! The other girls liked the chocolates, Twirly Skirt wasn't into the Mexican as much but this stop for sure restored our dedication to our mission.Taraccino's Coffee
By this time, we were full of sugar and girliness and Instagrams. The barista at Taraccino's reminded me of my super hippie yoga teacher and she was just as laid back and right-on-y as a barista should be. She was interested in our silly mission and was glad to have a goofy chat with us. We were onto sharing just one small hot chocolate at this point. Unfortunately, it was served in a paper throw away travel cup and lost serious points for not being pretty. Sweet Rush thought it was sour, Twirly Skirt and I thought it was fine--better than Cafe Latte for sure--totally drinkable, but nothing incredible. The best part of this stop was probably our stop at Bibelot where I got obsessed over some sparkly rings and a bumble bee mug. Anyway, the hot chocolate might not have blown our minds but it was good and worth the stop.
We finally made it to Rustica, it was starting to get dark and close to closing time so they were out of many of their gorgeous pastries. I am obsessed with their Bittersweet Chocolate cookies so I was hopeful the hot chocolate would end up being around as good as Kopplin's and Segue. We ordered one small hot chocolate for the three of us as we were over sugared and sloshing around at that point. We all took one sip and were convinced, absolutely the best of the day. This is what we were waiting for--rich, slightly sweet, absolutely incredible. We were smitten. And the cookie combined with the hot chocolate should have been too much, but it was delightful in absolutely every way. We put this one down quickly and easily, even pondered getting another hot chocolate but decided we needed real food more than another chocolate, even though it was amazing. We headed to Punch Pizza knowing that we'd found the winner!
Bettie B's Official Top 5
1. Rustica
2. Segue Cafe Mexican Hot Chocolate
3. Kopplin's Regular Hot Chocolate
4. Tarracino's
5. (more like 25 or 50 or 500...so bad!) Cafe Latte
I have to get to Rustica!
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