Salt Lake City, UTHot Chocolate

The Salt Lake Tribune ranks Hatch Family Chocolates' cocoa the richest in the city, made with Guittard milk and dark chocolate, steamed milk and heavy whipping cream. An employee told the paper it is the shop's most popular item, with lines out the door on winter days, and customers can add Aztec spice, gingerbread spice or peppermint. Salt Lake Magazine separately covers the shop's frozen hot chocolate, blended with crushed ice and housemade vanilla ice cream and available year round. Order the classic cup with a peppermint add-in in winter, or the frozen version when it is warm out.

The Salt Lake Tribune ranks Forty Three Bakery's cocoa second, made from a hot chocolate powder mix the Poplar Grove bakery blends itself from dark cocoa powder, granulated sugar, milk powder, flaky sea salt and baking spices, then steams into the milk. Chef Andrew Corrao tops it with croissant whipped cream and shaved chocolate, and the paper describes the result as complex and lightly spiced, with a foam layer that unfolds as you drink it. Order it alongside the croissant donuts, the pairing the Tribune recommends.

Chez Nibs is a chocolate shop first, so The Salt Lake Tribune's cocoa ranking treats its hot chocolate as no afterthought, made by chef Romina Rasmussen from a ganache of 73 percent Guatemalan dark chocolate and 35 percent milk chocolate with caramel notes from Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, combined with cream and vanilla bean syrup. Rasmussen calls it luscious and smooth, not bitter despite the dark chocolate share, and says it holds up well with whipped cream on top. Order it with her signature kouign amann, the pairing the Tribune calls out.

The Salt Lake Tribune's cocoa ranking recommends drinking Eva's Bakery's hot chocolate in the cafe itself for the full effect. A server told the paper it is crafted with a mocha sauce made from dark chocolate chips, topped with a thick layer of foam finished in latte-style art, and the Tribune calls the balance just right, not too rich or too sweet. Order it with one of the bakery's French macarons or a chocolate eclair, both part of the wide pastry case the review points to alongside the cocoa.

Fillings & Emulsions closes out The Salt Lake Tribune's cocoa ranking, its hot chocolate made from a ganache mixture an employee told the paper is stirred slowly into steamed milk. The result reads less sweet than the other cups the Tribune tasted, but still creamy and chocolatey, from the eclectic Latin-influenced bakery. Order it with one of the bakery's meat pies or a kouign amann for a savory counterpoint, or a macaron if you want to keep things sweet, all part of the wide pastry case the review describes.