Maverick Chocolate Co.

Paul Picton and his wife Marlene began making their own bars after his globetrotting work trips ended, and Maverick was born at Findlay Market as a bean-to-bar maker, with organic cocoa beans first on the label. The Prohibition bar blends dark cocoa with smooth milk chocolate, Kentucky bourbon and bourbon barrel-smoked sea salt, and the 70 percent Belize dark bar is smooth and bright, with notes of cherry and roasted nuts. Order both bars.

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CityBeat sends dark chocolate loyalists to this Findlay Market bean-to-bar chocolatier, where the hot chocolate is made from the shop's own melted small-batch chocolate, churned on a contraption like Dojo Gelato's next door. The result is bitter rather than sweet and topped with fresh, unsweetened whipped cream, which the write-up calls the holy grail for anyone who insists milk chocolate is not real chocolate. Order it if a dark, strong cup matters more than a sweet one, and skip the whipped cream if the bitterness is the point.

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