Birmingham, ALHot Chocolate

Big Spoon's Hot Sipping Chocolate blends 66 percent dark and 40 percent milk chocolates, steamed with milk and cream, and arrives under a torched house-made vanilla bean marshmallow. It comes from an ice cream shop run by co-owner Geri-Martha O'Hara, who came up as a pastry chef, and the Avondale shop was the first storefront the business opened. Order the Hot Sipping Chocolate and let the marshmallow melt in.

A Forest Park chocolate shop whose sipping chocolate is made from solid chocolate rather than cocoa powder, with a small amount of sugar and a pinch of spice, so it drinks much thicker than hot cocoa. Its hot cocoa is built on cocoa powder with a pinch of cinnamon, and both are sold as tins of mix that work with oat, nut or soy milk as well as dairy. Order the sipping chocolate.

A Five Points South coffee parlor whose hot chocolate is built on a house-made chocolate sauce and steamed milk, then finished with a sprinkle of smoked sea salt. Order the hot chocolate for the smoked salt on top.

O.Henry's has roasted coffee in Birmingham since 1993, and its hot chocolate is an order for peppermint lovers: a mug loaded with peppermint and topped with freshly made whipped cream. Order the hot chocolate at the Homewood shop on 18th Street.

Red Cat's Pepper Place coffee house pours its hot chocolate three ways: traditional, coconut or peppermint. Order the classic with all the toppings.