Happy August to you all!
The Olympics has us thinking back to our trip to Japan just before COVID and I remembered that I hadn't posted a lot of the hot chocolates I enjoyed there! I posted a lot of new reviews with interesting bits about seeing a different site of Tokyo and, off course, some of the amazing chocolate you can find there (yes, really). This includes one of the chocolates on my bucket list: Green Bean to Bar
Thanks for following and if you have any hot chocolate news you'd like to share, send it over!
Giselle
How to order a hot chocolate in Tokyo: "Hottochokorēto o itadakemasu ka?"
Recent posts...
A Hot Chocolate at CIBI in Tokyo
Heard of CIBI in Melbourne? Well, there is a second one in Tokyo and it is gorgeous.
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A "Hot Chocolate" at Yanaka Kenshindo in Tokyo
It wasn't a hot chocolate, but I loved it all the same. Let me introduce you to this Anmitsu and the Yanessan area of Tokyo.
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A Hot Chocolate at Green Bean to Bar in Tokyo
A must visit chocolate destination in Japan. I also share some information on why the origin of the cacao in the chocolate you buy is not only important, but exciting!
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A Hot Chocolate at The City Bakery, Japan
NYC's City Bakery, and its amazing marshmallows, live on in Japan. Here I also share some information about the Nakameguro area of Tokyo.
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Other hot chocolates I've had in Tokyo include Jean Paul Hevin, Minimal and Dandelion. For more Japanese hot chocolates click here.
And if you want to know even more about Tokyo
There are some fantastic bean to bar chocolate shops in Japan including Xocol Stone Ground Xocolate, Dandelion, Minimal, Craft Chocolate Works and Green Bean to Bar Chocolate, all with beautiful hot chocolates obviously.
Buy Jane Lawson's Tokyo Style Guide, even if you aren't planning a trip to Tokyo. Reading it makes me feel like I'm walking around Tokyo.
Here is a guide to Yanaka (this website also has great guides for other neighbourhoods).
The most popular chocolate brand in Japan is Meiji chocolate and the most popular hot chocolate Morinaga.
and in other hot chocolate news…
Kokako in New Zealand is packaging their drinking chocolate in special compostable packaging entirely made from plant based materials.
There hasn't been a lot of chocolate made in cacao growing countries. This is changing. For example, Latitude Craft Chocolate Made in Uganda.
Hotel Chocolate in the UK launched the Hot Chocolate velvetiser; a pot that heats and whisks hot chocolate. It looks shiny and pretty and I love the idea (but you can just use a pot and a whisk...)
If you make your hot chocolate with oat milk, here is a ranking.
In Ivory Coast, the source of 40% of all cacao beans, is using the shells and pod husks to generate renewable energy in a biomass plant.
Any links you want to share? Send them to me here.
Sipping Tip
Cacao grows along the tropical belt, 23 degrees north and south of the equator and up to about 1,000 meters in altitude.