Washington, DCHot Chocolate

This Georgetown chocolatier pours a drinking chocolate made by a patented process that melts the chocolate straight into steamed milk instead of stirring in a powder. Guests choose milk, white, dark or spicy dark. Order the white, with its light dusting of nutmeg on top, ahead of the more expected dark cup.

This local mini-chain stays true to its roots with a classic Cuban-style hot chocolate called Chocolate de Abuela: a steamed mix of dark chocolate syrup, whipped espresso sugar and a Cuban spice mix with milk, built as a vessel for dipping churros. Order it with the jumbo chocolate marshmallow add-on, and bring the churros to dunk.

This Van Ness bakery steams up a family recipe that melts a rich ganache into steamed milk. A winter special adds an orange hot cocoa infused with a swirl of house-made orange-anise syrup, and the bakery's outpost at the Phillips Collection pours a thicker, Parisian-style version topped with fresh whipped cream. Order the orange version at the Connecticut Avenue location, or the Parisian style at the museum counter.

Hot chocolate gets its own section on the menu at this Penn Quarter cafe, with five flavors including peppermint and coconut that can be ordered dry or spiked with a liqueur. The cafe also runs boozy hot cocoa flights, each flavored with a different variety of Bailey's. Order a flight rather than a single flavor if you want to compare the peppermint against the coconut side by side.

This Capitol Hill pretzel shop rides the Nutella craze into its hot chocolate, a cup it calls the Hotella, made by stirring the hazelnut spread into the drink instead of plain cocoa. Order the Hotella on its own, since the hazelnut spread is the whole point of the cup.