Denver, COHot Chocolate

Cultura is a Mexican American-owned bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and its cafe on Morrison Road pours a range of drinking chocolates, from Mexican and Haitian drinking cocoa to champurrado, alongside atoles such as blue corn and amaranth. A beverage flight lets you taste sipping chocolate, drinking chocolate, traditional atoles and prehispanic atoles side by side. Order the flight, or a cup of the Mexican drinking cocoa.

Piece, Love & Chocolate on Pearl Street in Boulder pours a thick, European-style drinking chocolate with real heft to it, a cup worth the trip up from Denver, and it makes frozen chocolate drinks as well as hot ones. The rest of the shop is filled with hand-crafted truffles, macarons and cakes. Order the European-style drinking chocolate, and take a few truffles home.

The hot chocolate at Santos Cafe & Grill comes giant-sized and is most often served as a combo with a giant pink concha, a pairing meant for sharing with a crowd. The diner near the Denver-Aurora border serves rib-sticking Mexican fare in large, hearty portions, from tamales and pancakes to chilaquiles with carnitas and red and green chile. Order the giant hot chocolate with the pink concha.

Stargazer pours its hot cocoa in a small chocolate shop on Colorado Boulevard with a reputation for quality chocolate, where a master chocolatier hand crafts European-style chocolates, truffles and artisan bars balanced for sweetness. Hot cocoa is one of several cafe drinks on the menu. Order a hot cocoa and a few truffles.

Lucile's Creole Cafe serves hot chocolate with a Big Easy-inspired breakfast at its South Logan Street cafe, one of several outposts of a Boulder original. The menu runs to New Orleans classics: beignets that do not skimp on the powdered sugar, chicory coffee, and shrimp and grits made with andouille sausage and red pepper, with jalapeño cheese grits as an upgrade for an extra kick. Order the Homemade Hot Chocolate and a plate of beignets.