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Best hot chocolates in london

Thursday, 31 March 2022

I'd say I love hot chocolate as much as the next person but actually, I don't - not the typical coffee shop hot chocolates anyway, you know the ones that taste like milk and powder. Absolutely not.

As such, I am always on the lookout for hot chocolates that are thick and delicious, ones that look like brownie batter or melted chocolate, something that someone has actually put some effort into creating, not just an extra for kids put on a coffee shop menu.

Lucky for me, I live in London and the hot chocolate scene here seems to be blowing up at the moment. I'm yet to find anywhere that serves a cup of melted chocolate (apart from Cadbury's World) but I am finding some gems on my search!

Knoops - The Reliable one.

Knoops is very understated, for all anyone else knows, I could be drinking a cup of coffee, but inside my very plain looking coffee cup is probably the most delicious hot chocolate of them all.

With shops all over London (and beyond) my first visit to the store was overwhelming to say the least, the whole back wall is covered in numbers which makes choosing the right chocolate percentage rather confusing. I was v scared of making a wrong choice but having asked the barista for some advice, I picked the 34% that day and haven't looked back since.

I have, however experimented with the 34. I discovered that you can also have it cold, as an iced drink or a milkshake. Whilst their flavour of the month happened to be a 34 with sea salt, my first sip of that combination as a thick, creamy milkshake, was one of these weird moments when the world around you stops for a few seconds. It was amazing.

Download the app and get your first drink free.

Chin chin - The Decadent one.

It's not often I am outdone by something sugary (it probably didn't help that I bought one of their burnt banana ice cream cakes as well) but I didn't get very far through this one the first time and I shared one with my mum the second! It's super decadent, thick and rich but just a little bit bitter for my liking, like it had been made with darker chocolate.

Also very impressive looking with a huge scoop of torched marshmallow on top. I often find the marshmallow to be more style than substance but this comes from a dessert parlour so the guys actually know what they're doing and yes, it was delicious.

Found at: Soho & Camden Market.

Appleblue Patisserie - The Milky one.

This marshmallow was not a vibe with this one, but the chocolate covered lip of the cup? They're on to a winner with that.

The drink itself was on the thin side but very nice and still v rich. Yes

Find this one in Balham.

Said Dial - The Liquid Chocolate one.

Wandering around Soho, we saw people drinking them out on the street and had to have one. At first, I was unsure whether it was just a cup of melted chocolate or whether there was anything more, sadly the menu confirmed it was the latter.

That being said, when it turned up and I couldn't tell where to melted chocolate ended and the hot drink started so I was very pleased with this one.

Dark Sugars - The Artisan One.

Dark sugars is a handmade chocolate shops with outlets in Brick Lane and Greenwich. The displays of truffles bring in a crowd but it's the hot chocolate I go there for!

It looks very impressive, topped with shards of milk, white and dark chocolate and whilst I was tempted to eat it all straight away, the best part of this one is actually once I got down to the dregs and realised that most of it had melted and dropped to the bottom.

Too busy dealing with chocolate to take a photo so this one has been borrowed from here

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

Evian Fruits &Plants Launch

Evian have just launched three new flavoured waters - in the cutest little bottles - which combine their natural mineral water from the alps with unique pairing of fruits & delicate botanicals. The three flavours are lemon & elderflower, grape & rose and raspberry & verbena.

I was invited along to Liberty for a little launch night event which was really lovely! I arrived to a room filled with beautiful flowers. After a little introduction to the new flavours, we got to try them all - My favourite of the three was the red one, raspberry & Verbena.

although, I'd never pass up anything elderflower flavoured!

We had a masterclass from Libertys florists on how to create the perfect bunch. But there were so many beautiful, good quality flowers that I grabbed all of my favourites and that was my bunch sorted, none of that greenery, filler stuff! They might not have been perfect but I love them. What do you think?

Truffle making with Farfetch

Farfetch invited 11 bloggers to their Old Street HQ (which is pretty snazzy might I add) for a chocolatey evening just in time for Easter. We started with chocolate martinis before sitting down to hear all about how chocolate is made and where it comes from.

Next up we tried some different dark chocolates and were really able to see the difference usually I love cheap chocolate but cheap dark chocolate really isnt very nice at all! We tried good quality, not so good quality and a few flavours - I nearly died with the chili one, I knew it would be spicy but I want expecting it to be that bad! Rose wasn't much better and although it didn't leave me gasping for water, it did taste a bit like soap. There was one that I liked though and that was sea salt, it just adds a whole other depth to the flavour and I loved the texture of it as well!

Soon enough it was time to get suck in I seemed to be the only one who couldn't control themselves and probably ate just as much as I made. It was delicious. We piped chocolate truffles, rolled them and coated them with cocoa powder, sprinkles and raspberry sugar all whilst sipping on never ending choctails and chatting away about our lives away from blogging. It as such a lovely friendly event and a great chance to have some fun and do something different!

Hot Food At Costa Fresco

A couple of weeks ago, I went for lunch with the Costa girls to try the new hot dishes at Costa. These wont be at every branch, at the moment its just their Fresco branch on Tottenham Court Road which luckily for me, is the same road I work on! They brought us one each of everything so lets just say I certainly wasn't hungry for the remainder of the day (week.) Starting from 4th March, there will be three pies, all hot and ready to eat and two new puddings available. Initial thoughts? The ultimate working, cold, rainy day, comfort food - so perfectly positioned in London.

Lets start with the pies! The lasagna was packed full of slow cooked beef and pork, (the traditional Italian way apparently) and it was super rich - I think that one is more of an evening one as it was definitely the heaviest and most filling for the three, but that's cool, the new store is open until 8pm currently.

Next was the mac n cheese, gotta appreciate the amount of gooey, cheesey sauce that you get! It was thick and creamy and topped with panchetta and huge croutons. I loved all the burnt crispy bits around the end.

But what you may not know about me is that fish pie is my actual favorite meal. Pub lunch? I will always shun a Sunday roast in favour of a fish pie and Costa's was stuffed full of big chunks of cod, haddock and salmon in a delicious parsley sauce. Added to the decadence was the fluffy mashed potato and sprinkling of cheese and breadcrumbs on top. It was absolutely delicious and for under 500 calories, that really isn't bad for such a lovely lunch.

I was pretty full but of course there was still dessert to be had. Sticky toffee and sticky chocolate puddings! I went straight in for the chocolate but they were both light, moist and delicious! Hot and steamy and more than enough sauce which is usually a problem for me when it comes to puddings, there's never enough. Plus they serve it with a little pot of cream, how cute?!

Sugar Dumplin

A couple of weeks ago, I got an invite for an event just outside of London, in Camberly! I was invited along to Sugar Dumplin to try out of of their Jamaican food and luckily for me, they had put on a party bus to take us there! We all met at London bridge and bundled in, turned up the reggae, got the rum out and we were on our way!

It was a fun little evening! The place was super cute with little cut off areas around the restaurant complete with tin roofs. We started off with a go on the steel pans (dont they just remind you of being on holiday?) followed by some flaming cocktails to get the evening started!

I have never eaten Jamaican before so I was pretty excited to try them all! Luckily, I had Juanita with me and she seemed to know what everything was when all these strange delicacies started arriving at the table. Everything from plantain, salt cod fish cakes, curry Goat, guyanese curry and of course, not forgetting the things I did know about - rice and peas and jerk chicken! I was worried that it might have been a bit spicy for me but it wasnt a problem, there were a fit spicy bits but they were easily avoidable without have to miss out!

The night ended with some more cocktails and a very long journey home!

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Friday, 25 March 2016

Happy Good Friday everyone! I don't really know what that means but you know, hope you all have a lovely day and have some super plans for the weekend! I'm looking forward for my 5 whole days off, yup I booked Tuesday off too so I could almost pretend that it's an actual holiday, I'm just not planning on leaving the country. I am, however, planning to relax away from home and to eat alot! I'm pretty excited.

I'm Jewish so Easter was never really a big deal for me growing up, obvs it never had any religious relevance to me but I did always look forward to it because my parents always go overboard with the chocolate. Any excuse for more chocolate in my house. Since I've been abit older though, and had my own money, I seem to have developed a larger than normal love for Easter eggs. People buy them for me, I buy them for myself haha but my dad is the one when it comes to my Easter eggs. A couple of weeks ago, as he does every year, he came back with 16 of them - apparently they were on sale. LOL. But don't think that's it, they were all Nestle, so that's me stocked up on those for the year, now to get a few Cadbury's ones (and yes, I can definitely tell the difference) and maybe a couple more posh ones if I fancy. So far this year, I've already had 6 but I've got a personal best to beat (28 if you were wondering)

I am 100% sure that they taste better than normal chocolate and I have a theory for that! Yes I do. The chocolate of an egg is thin which means, at the right temperature (more on that in minute) it has an addictive snap to it, that is why I love Easter eggs. The sound and feel of when you snap it in your hands or bite into it. mmmm SO good. Now lets discuss temperatures! Everyone who I have mentioned about the snap too has just assumed that I keep them in the fridge but that is a complete no-go for me. It might make the crack more intense but it completely ruins the flavour of the chocolate, I hate chocolate out of a fridge. I need it to be cold, but not that cold so I've found the best place to leave my Easter eggs in order for them to get that perfect crack and keep their flavour, is in my brother's bedroom because he's away at uni and his room is always cold.

So that is what I think about Easter eggs. Add me on Snapchat (xxgeorgina18) and see how many I manage over the weekend!

P.S Does anyone else use one little pointy piece of chocolate to draw shapes on the rest of it?

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Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg
Guys, I have a whole post to bring you up to date with how I feel about Easter eggs coming next week (yep, I thought it needed a whole post) but in the meantime, I thought it was only right for me to show you my recent gift from the guys at Hotel Chocolate. It's a little bit posher than the ones I'm used to - I rarely get posh Easter eggs because I just get through too many to spend alot on each one so this was a real treat! They've sent me one of their caramel scrambled eggs. It's a hollow caramel chocolate egg decorated with chocolate drizzles in a posh box with matching drizzled pralines, cute. This was definitely the one for me since my new found love for anything they do caramel flavored.

The description says perfect for sharing but we all know that's not going to happen.

Dirty Martini Choctails

Everyone knows I'm a big of a fan of Dirty Martinis Chocolate Martini so I was very excited to hear that they have two other chocolate cocktails on offer over Easter! I took Georgia along with me to sample as I know she has a totally different taste to me, lets be honest, she is much more grown up that I am.

Georgia went for the White Rabbit and I had the Maltease. First thing first, they both looked pretty good - as I said, Georgia went for the grown up sounding one spiced rum, dark chocolate bitters and it looked it when it arrived! It came in such a classy little glass! It was fruity thanks to the Solerno Blood Orange and had a bit of a Terrys chocolate orange vibe going on. It was also quite thick and super smooth from to the egg mixed into it.

Mine looked good for another reason, I felt like I'd just ordered dessert and any cocktail with Nutella and whipped cream in the description has gotta be a winner right? Right! It looks like a little kids cocktail which is me all over and it tasted really good - once I licked all the cream off with my finger (classy I know) and finally got to try it. It was rich and creamy and delicious with just a little kick.

Available from 14th – 28th March

Easter Cupcake at Hummingbird Bakery

For me, Hummingbird Bakery do the best cupcakes. The sponge across all flavours is delicious, light and fluffy, they always look incredible and they are so generous with the frosting, I just cant enjoy a cupcake the same when I am trying to ration the frosting on each bite haha.

Every cake I've ever had from them has been delicious so I can safely say these limited edition Easter designs would make the perfect Easter treat and a pretty special alternative to another Easter Egg! For £20.25 you get a box of 6, hand decorated cupcakes or you can buy them for £3.55 each. Obvs, I picked up six including two red velvet, two chocolate and two vanilla made in a selection of designs. I'll have to admit, the vanilla ones with the sparkly chocolate toppings look delicious but red velvet are my all times fave so I'll be saving one of those for myself!

Available from 18th to 28th March.

Krispy Kreme Cookie Dough and Brownie Batter Doughnuts

So a box of the new flavours arrived for me at work on Thrusday and they certainly didnt last long - there were already two missing by the time I got from the post room back to my desk haha. I was most excited by the cookie dough one so I grabbed one of those before the swarm erupted! Luckily, one of the girls only wanted half so I shared a brownie batter one with her too! Obvs had to try both.

The toppings on both were lovely, covered in a thin layer of milk or white chocolate and sprinkled with either crunchy cookie pieces and chocolate chips or chocolate brownie chunks. Surprisingly enough, I have never had a filled doughnut before, I'm a ring kinda girl so this was my first! I was very impressed with the taste of the cookie dough one, the filling was unmistakably cookie dough and it was delicious! I'll be honest though, I was expecting there to be alot more filling in both. I kinda just assumed that I picked the wrong half of the chocolate one and that my friend, Aarti, got a half a doughnut with a whole load of filling but I had the same issue when I bit into my other one.

The flavour of the cookie dough filling did save it for me though and I would happily buy another one just for the taste, it really is delicious!

Available February 22nd - April 17th

P.S Head over to my twitter - I'm giving away 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

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Friday, 26 February 2016

So my monthly things seemed like too much time from one to the next so I have changed it to Things. That way I can post when I have a few thing rather than waiting until the end of each month!

Pancake day

So we originally planned to have pancakes for dinner but Juanita decided she wanted some for lunch too so we popped off to Snowflake Gelato in Soho. They were doing pancakes just for the day and we just so happened to arrive just as they were practicing their first lot which mean we got the first batch on the house as official testers. They were pretty good for the first attempt of the day, I wish I could say the same for my own attempts. I had lunch with me so (as well as the free pancakes) I just had some gelato on the way back to work but Juanita ordered these incredible looking waffles complete with strawberries and milk chocolate gelato. *Drools*

My Hotel Chocolat Valentine

Its cute when brand get in touch and ask you to send a little treat to a blogger friend isnt it? Hotel Chocolat asked me to send a secret Valentine’s gift to another blogger and of course I picked Juanita. After spending most days with her for the past 6 months, I have come to learn that she is literally obsessed with Hotel Chocolat, we often spend a lunch hour in there where she ends up spending more than most on chocolate, so I knew she was going to love the surprise.

Juanita picked The Valentines Sleekster and they also kindly send me The Hearts & Truffles Box

which kept my company on Valentines day since I wasn't able to spend the day itself with Andrew.

Work

I didn't realise when I started working here but apparently, brand and publications love to shower us SEO types with treats and it kinda makes arriving at the office each day a little bit exciting. For Valentines day, last week we had Metro pop by for the morning to hand out heart shaped chocolates before lunch and in the afternoon. Instagram arrived with an instaprinter and a huge pic'n'mix table.

Doing Something Crazy

OK so it's not crazy for everyone but I am super proud of myself for doing it. I went to a super event with Murine last week (more to come on that) but basically we started at a Superdrug in Marble Arch and finished at The Sky Garden. And how did we get from the first place to the second at 6pm on a Thursday evening? Motorbike. Obvs. I was totally freaking out from the moment I found out until I got on the bike but I am so glad I did it. It was an amazing experience and one I am glad I can say I have. Being able to see London from that perspective, with the wind blowing in your face was amazing! We weaved in and out of cars and up and down little side streets that I didnt know existed.

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Sunday, 16 November 2014

I start to use lots of products when it gets cold that I dont really think about when its not - Like bath bombs from Lush, I used their shower gels all summer but wait until it gets cold before I start having a long relaxing soak. Its the same with this next product - I wouldn't think of drinking hot chocolate though the summer but as soon as it get cold its all I want!

I was sent this lovely luxury hamper of products from Whittard a few weeks ago! I received three different hot chocolate powders, one plain, one orange and one chili (Excited to try that one!) plus a huge tub of marshmallows (which as well as on my hot chocolate I have been munching though in from of the TV oops) plus two boxes of yummy treats to eat with my drinks - Dark Chocolate Salted Caramels and Milk Chocolate Caramel Coated Marshmallows which were amazing. As well as all tasting great, what I really loved about them was the packaging of each product, it is very muted and classic looking! This makes them perfect as christmas gifts!

Al I needed really was a can of whipped cream which I will be going out to get next week mmm. Since I didnt have any I just topped it off with the amazing little sugar coated, pastel marshmallows, which are the perfect size for hot chocolate, they all just melted into a layer of marshmallowy goodness and once I'd eaten that, I put more on and started again haha.

If your a hot chocolate lover then Whittard is the place for with so many different flavored hot chocolates, next on my list is the caramel and white hot chocolates.

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Friday, 23 May 2014

I've done lots of foodie bits and pieces over the past two weeks so I thought instead of loads of mini posts, I could just put them into one!

#BirdseyeInspirations

I was invited to a sitting of the first ever pay by instagram restaurant in London hosted my Birdseye, what a strange concept, but I loved it, any excuse to take more photos of my food haha. I'll be honest, I thought it all might be a little cheap since it's free but it wasn't, you would never be able to tell! It looks just like a normal restaurant except you didn't have to pay at the end.

We started with some bread, oil and vinegar which is something I always love to start a meal with. The waiting staff were great and offered us wine, water, coke, whatever we wanted really. Once we were settled with our bread and drinks we then got to work picking our meals over the iPads, each table setting came with and ipad for you to use throughout your meal - I picked the chicken which was super yummy with a garlic sauce inside and some minted veg!

The meal finished with a choice of chocolate or strawberry desserts, obviously I went for chocolate which was a super thick and decedent chocolate pot thing with ice cream on top!

#KrispyKremeEliteTreat

Since it was national doughnut week, the next very exciting launch that I went to the unveiling of the world's most expensive doughnut with Krispy Kreme. I arrived first thing in the morning and was very excited, I didn't really know what to expect although I did think it was going to be huge!! After getting everyone's attention and a little drum roll the doughnut was revealed and although it was normal sized, it looked amazing! A sparkly gold creation sitting on a pretty cocktail. I got a chance to speak to the woman who made it and she talked me though the ingredients - Dom Pérignon jelly, 24 ct gold leaf and edible diamonds! Then finally we were told how much it cost! £1000!!! and one lucky lady - Claudine - won in on a facebook competition, what a crazy prize and as well as that she got a stay in London plus £500 Selfridges voucher - a very nice prize if you ask me! If you fancied a less expensive version for yourself, Selfridges were selling 12 bespoke doughnuts on the day at £39.99 each.

At the end of the unveiling Krispy Kreme presented a giant £10,000 cheque to the children's trust!

After all that excitement, I was off down to Oxford street for a little bit of shopping! I said goodbye and left but not before picking up a yummy chocolate doughnut for the journey!!

Costa Coffee's New Summer Menu - #HelloSummer

I didn't have time to look up the venue properly for this one so I just followed my phone to the address - I turned up outside a Hawaiian paradise club hidden behind chancery lane, definitely not what I was expecting for a coffee event, but I was very excited all the same, I love Costa's summer drinks normally so I was looking forward to what that have planned for this year! I arrived early and was greeted by the lovely Costa girls and the amazing room they had set up with deck chairs and flower garlands, a makeup artist, manicurists, food and lots of Costa treats! The girls and I got straight into eating some of the yummy food and chatting about the new releases before trying all of the drinks with a piece of cake afterwards!

There are eight yummy new drinks for you to look forward to which will be in stores from the 29th of May! Here's what you have got to look forward to -

Strawberry & Lime Fruit Cooler

Green Tea, Mint & Lime Fruit Cooler

Caramel Latte Cooler

Mint Mocha Creamy Cooler

Lemon Iced Tea

Peach Iced Tea

Coffee Cooler

Iced Ginger Beer & Mint

My favourite was 100% the Mint Mocha, I'm not a fan of actual coffee as I was a bit worried about trying it because I have never liked coffee based coolers in the past but it was really nice and the tiny little faint taste of coffee give it a little extra kick, it was also topped with whipped cream and chocolate which helped put it to the top of my list haha. I also loved the white chocolate blondie, I've never had a while chocolate brownie before but it was amazing, sweet and gooey with chocolate chunks and pecans on top, so yummy! After stuffing my face with one of every thing, you know I had to try if all for reviewing purposes, I ended up behind the bar making a ginger beer inspired cocktail in theme with the new release, I was far too full to drink and alcohol but I was happy because it meant I got a drink in a tiki glass and that was all I really wanted hahah.