Explainer: The Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival returns for another year
Let your taste buds feast on some unique hot chocolate drinks near you
The Florals and Spice hot chocolate from 49th Parallel Coffee + Lucky’s Doughnuts is a rose petal and cardamom infused dark chocolate accompanied by a brioche doughnut with a spiced chocolate filling. (Kristen Frier)
The Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival is back for their 13th year, serving fresh, innovative, and tasty drinks to warm your winter season. The festival goes until Feb. 14 with 95 participating locations like cafés, coffee shops, ice cream parlours, and bakeries across Metro Vancouver. They feature 145 flavours, each with their own unique twist and aesthetically-pleasing presentations.
Several organizations and sponsorships like Vancouver Farmers Market Society, Cityfood Magazine, and Global BC are just a few examples of organizations sponsoring this festival.
In 2011, the event started as a city-wide initiative and was the first in the world to put hot chocolate in the spotlight to support small and local businesses. At the heart of each participating vendor and organization is a desire to sponsor three local charities, Fresh to Families, Growing Chefs, and The ‘Marshmallow Dreams’ Project.
Fresh to Families provides low-income families, newly-arrived refugees, and at-risk communities access to healthy and locally grown food. Growing Chefs partners teams of chefs and community volunteers to teach elementary school kids about nutrition, cooking, planting and growing a garden, and the importance of healthy food systems.
The ‘Marshmallow Dreams’ Project is a new charity launched by vendors participating in this year’s festival. It aims to make the festival more accessible to disadvantaged children through free coupons distributed to shelters for battered women, church groups, and other organizations that assist low-income families.
The motto for this year’s festival is accurately “hot chocolate makes you happy.”
You can choose from a wide array of unique flavours ranging from fun and sweet to strong and bold. 49th Parallel Coffee + Lucky’s Doughnuts has “Florals and Spice,” a dark hot chocolate infused with cardamom and organic rose petals, and “Hip Hip Hooray!” which is birthday cake-inspired with white chocolate and sprinkles.
Bella Gelateria offers three flavours: “Purple Dream,” a white chocolate and ube drink; “Cherry Bomb,” dark hot chocolate with cherries; and “Picante Chocolate,” a milk hot chocolate with turmeric, ginger, and cayenne.
Some newcomers are stepping up to the plate like The Pie Hole, who has turned three of its signature treats into hot chocolates, notably the “‘DDD’ Raspberry Cream” that was featured on the TV show “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”
There are also vegan options like Koko Monk’s “Black Orpheus,” a dark hot chocolate infused with vegan black curry and a dash of coconut served with a side of vegan salted rose caramel praline.
There’s also Honolulu Coffee, which sells “Raincouver,” an Instagrammable dark hot chocolate with cloud-shaped melting cotton candy that makes the drink look like it’s raining. Gluten-free options in specific locations are available as well.
When trying some of these amazing flavours, don’t forget to take a photo and post it on social media. You will have a chance to win gift certificates totalling $1,500. Prizes vary from first to eighth place.
To enter their Instagram photo contest, post a photo of your hot chocolate to your feed. Add the hashtag “#HCFphotocontest” in your photo caption and you’ll get entered automatically for a chance to win one of four grand prizes. Only posts to your feed are counted for the contest, not stories or reels. Winners will be drawn and announced on Feb. 14.
A full list of locations is available on their website to plan your sweet itinerary.
