Hotel Chocolat: A Chocolate Lovers Paradise!

Hotel Chocolat is a chain of chocolate shops founded in 1987 by Angus Thirwell and Peter Harris. As of January this year, they had 125 shops in the UK and 33 shops in Japan. Hotel Chocolat sells a variety of chocolate products and is constantly innovating and experimenting by launching new flavours to stay ahead of the competition. As well as selling chocolate, they sell alcohol (such as cacao gin and velvetised chocolate cream liquor), offer a subscription service, hampers, gifts and hot chocolate. One of their most famous products is their Velvetiser, launched in 2018. The Velvetiser is an at-home hot chocolate machine, where you can buy sachets of chocolate in various flavours including mint, salted caramel, peanut butter, and Black Forest Gateau.

As well as their chocolate shops, Hotel Chocolat has a hotel in Saint Lucia called Rabot Hotel. The hotel is situated on their working cacao farm in a rainforest which sounds very cool! During your stay, you can learn more about the chocolate making process, take a trip to the spa, and relax in the fun. Maybe this is a place I need to add to my list of travel destinations!

Many of Hotel Chocolat’s stores operate cafes where you can enjoy a coffee, hot chocolate, iced hot chocolate or ice cream sundae. I took a visit to the Chiswick branch with my mum to see what their cafe was like. I opted for the chilli hot chocolate, made with oat milk, and topped with chocolate whip (£3.45). My mum chose the Billionaire’s Sundae (£5.45) which is described as “Ice cream of the God’s. Billionaire’s Shortbread chocolate. Crispy pearls. Two sauces.”

I was very impressed with the hot chocolate! Sometimes I find hot chocolate to be too rich, but not this one - it was creamy and had just the right amount of chilli so you could feel a slight kick at the back of your throat. They were really generous with the chocolate whip and it was much better than your regular squirty cream that comes from a can. The billionaire’s sundae was very well presented and excellent value for money! The cup was layered with caramel and ice cream, with crispy pearls distributed throughout so you were guaranteed a crunch in every bite. The sundae was topped with yet more sauce and a billionaire shortbread chocolate. I will definitely be going back to try their other flavours of hot chocolate and when the weather is warmed I need to give their mango and passion fruit sundae a try, as well as their iced hot chocolate!

As a little tip, I suggest you sign up for the VIP reward scheme as you get 20% off every time you buy a drink/sundae in the cafe!