There’s hot chocolate and then there’s Hot Chocolate. And the difference between what ordinary mortals call and drink believing to be, hot chocolate, is not the same as the Drink of the God’s Hot Chocolate. Eh, I hear you say, what the frak is she talking about now? Hot chocolate? Yes, my dears, not all hot chocolate is made equal, as I am sure you know if you drink it as regularly as I do. Most establishments will spoon a couple of heaped spoonfuls of some iffy powder into a cup and froth some milk to a tepid temperature, pour it on top, and offer that up as your drink. The taste, I can assure you, having drank one too many of these so called hot chocolates, is akin I imagine to sipping lukewarm flavoured wallpaper paste. This, dear people, is most definitely not the drink of the gods. But here, in Quebec City (and lucky for me) I have found not one, not two, but three places that make a chocolate concoction fit for the Gods! Have you ever had hot chocolate made with a base of pure, delicious, rich dark 90% cacao ice cream? No? Well, I have. Qwelli’s Italian gelato makers do a hot chocolate to take you to close to heaven’s doorstep. I don’t know what crazy person thought to make hot chocolate this way but damn, I’m glad they did. It is delicious and ranks in Third Place in my list of fav drinks. Second place goes to the Cochon Dinge chain of restaurants who started making hot chocolate the Dutch way. Using real dark chocolate and a Dutch powdered mix that is served in a heated pot, table-side, with a small jug of hot milk. You then mix the two into your cup and get one of the richest tasting chocolate drinks you have ever experienced. Yes, they are only second place. And who makes it to first place? Why, the chocolate museum of course. They, like Cochon Dinge, have vats of smouldering lava-like rich chocolate brews in magnificent cauldrons sat behind the counter. At last count there were 12 different varieties of molten chocolate you could choose from — and yes, I’ve tried them all, and yes, they are all as delicious as the next one. This molten chocolate is the base upon which they pour frothed full-fat milk (and this is important) from height, like those Turkish tea pourers. And yes, they finish off your drink with a Barista-style pattern that could win an art award. And what’s more, each drink is always served with an Italian wafer. And now, after all this talk of hot chocolate, guess where I’m going this afternoon? Yes, to the chocolate museum. Do you want to come? 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧