Boston, MAHot Chocolate

The menu here calls it drinking chocolate rather than hot chocolate, and Time Out explains why: it is made to order from dark, milk or white chocolate blends, or from a single-source varietal. Boston Magazine adds that the base is a blend of dark couvertures, high enough in cocoa butter that the small serving reads as dessert. Order the spicy dark, which is Boston Magazine's pick, or the Grenada cacao, which is Time Out's.

Chocolatier Perla Rosario and her partner Leo Baez run chocolate cafes downtown, in the South End and in Newton Highlands. Boston Magazine reports the house blend is specialty dark chocolate and milk with a dash of cinnamon, a nod to the spiced hot chocolate of their native Dominican Republic. Time Out lists the riffs: extra dark, spicy with cayenne, and dulce de leche. Order the spiced house version first, then the cayenne if you want the heat.

The Hanover Street coffee house pours cioccolato caldo, the Italian version, and Time Out gives away the method: corn starch thickens the mixture into a creamy cup of melted chocolate, finished with whipped cream. Whether it counts as a drink or a dessert is left to you. Order it plain, or take one of the two spiked versions, the Sleigh Ride with Godiva liqueur and Baileys or the Italia with hazelnut liqueur, kahlua and brandy.

The Fort Point bakery lists its cocoa as French drinking chocolate, which Boston Magazine reads as fair warning about how rich it is, and it arrives under a thick dollop of whipped cream. Order it with a cardamom bun, which is the magazine's own pairing. The room is part of the appeal: tiled floors, marble tables and floral arrangements give the cafe an old-world feel that suits sitting with a small cup.

The Tremont Street cafe works from melted 64 percent Tainori Valrhona single-origin drinking chocolate rather than a powder, which Time Out flags as the high-end alternative, and serves it in a warmed porcelain cup. Order the French hot chocolate and drink it in rather than carrying it out, since the cup is part of what Time Out describes. Boston Magazine adds that the cafe pours Stumptown coffee, and rates this the more indulgent of the two. Two other branches run on Hanover Street and Newbury Street.