Hot chocolate is nice throughout the year, however from late October to late March in London, it is the perfect way to warm up and get cosy. Read along for London’s dreamiest hot chocolates spots.
Here are my top spots for the ultimate hot chocolate in London. They are in no particular order and I like them all for different reasons. When in London make sure you visit at least one of these. None of them use powder – its all crafted luxury chocolate in different forms.
Best Hot Chocolate In London
Knoops
Pronounced as kunoops, here you can choose the percentage of cocoa you want in your hot chocolate and add in natural flavours and spices if you want. This makes it suitable for all tastes. Not only can you get hot chocolate here, you can get iced chocolate which is just so delicious especially in the summer.
When you walk in you are greeted with a back wall filled with the different types of chocolate you can have. From 100% to 28%, there are 20 varieties of chocolate you can enjoy. I like the 43% or 54%.




Dark Sugars
A high quality hot chocolate with the most generous serving of chocolate shavings. The latter makes this an ultimate hot chocolate. White, Dark or Milk – I went for all of it. You can pick a flavoured hot chocolate too and for those you want a coffee instead, you can get a cappuccino with a generous serving of chocolate shavings. The servers are pros at shaving that chocolate.
Dark Sugars sells several different flavours of hand crafted truffles. Be prepared to queue on busy days because the stores are not large and everyone wants one of their hot chocolates.




Italian Bear (previously SAID DAAL)
Melted chocolate heaven. You can have Italian Bear’s melted chocolate on practically everything they serve including their famous almond chocolate cake. They also serve strawberries with this chocolate making it a cute date place.
Walk in and smell the hot chocolates that are simmering away in the warmers. They have several chocolate gift options too, all produced locally.
My favourite flavour is hazelut. I am not sure what the chocolate is made of because I managed to polish off a small one. I thought it would be sickly but it was not.




Chin Chin Labs
My first experience at Chin Chin was their amazing icecream with melted chocolate. It was a mess to eat but it was so delicious. On my next visit I had a hot chocolate with a dollop of toasted marshmallow fluff. It is served in a paper cup with a spoon & bowl. The marshmallow is blow torched just before serving and the smell is so good.
The theatrical hot chocolate is rich and the marshmallow fluff adds the sweetness balancing it well. Best enjoyed sitting down or it will get messy and sticky hence the bowl.




Badiani Gelato
Badiani 1932 is the iconic Gelato spot in London but it does not stop there. Being an authentic Italian shop, it serves an Indulgent, thick, extra rich hot chocolate. The star for me has to be their Pistachio Hot Chocolate. Made with homemade pistachio paste, this is one for all you pistachio lovers. They also do an Affogato which has the addition of chocolate and is served with a scoop of their finest Buontalenti gelato.




These are my best hot chocolates spots in London. I am still on the look out for some more dreamy comforting hot chocolates and will update this post accordingly. After all hot chocolate is sometimes the treat you need to pick you up. Powder ones work for a quick fix but decadent crafted hot chocolates are just top tier and worth the extra couple of pounds.
If you want to make decadent hot chocolate at home, click here for my three luxurious hot chocolate recipes.

[…] Kev (my husband) loves good hot chocolate and I took him to to Italian bear in Rathbone Place. This was formally Said Dal. Read all about the best hot chocolate spots in London here. […]