Perfect Time for Hot Chocolate
What do we always want when it is winter time? What about for Valentine’s Day? If you said hot chocolate, then we are on the same page! When we heard that Vancouver, BC was doing a hot chocolate festival, and it was going to be over Valentine’s Day weekend, we decided to book a hotel and venture up north! For a little background information, the Hot Chocolate Festival has been going on in Vancouver for 13 years. Restaurants, chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, and ice cream makers from all over the region come together with their most creative hot chocolate concoctions for a month early on each year. For 2023, it was scheduled to happen from January 14 through February 14. What a perfect time for hot chocolate.
We are lucky that the trip up to Vancouver is not too long for us, so we could easily make this into a weekend getaway. When we arrived in Vancouver, we first decided to check into our hotel. We chose to stay at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. It was at a perfect location to a lot of the locations we chose to try out their hot chocolate selections. It was also a stunning hotel and perfect for our little getaway.
After checking in, we headed out to eat at Riley’s Restaurant. We started off with the Wagyu Beef Carpaccio which was delicious. For our main dish, we had the Coq au Vin and the Tenderloin, along with Butter Whipped Potatoes and Charred Broccolini. Lastly, for dessert, we went with a Raspberry Cheesecake. Our server was honestly fantastic and truly made it a wonderful experience. He even wrote a nice message in chocolate sauce on our dessert plate.
The next morning we started on our hot chocolate adventure. First up was the Bellagio Cafe. Our hot chocolates that we chose to try first were the “Sweet with a Twist”, a hot chocolate with candied bacon, and the “Like a Warm Hug”, a hot chocolate with whiskey-infused condensed milk and a baked cookie on the side. Both of these hot chocolates were unique. The whiskey one made us think of an Irish coffee, but had a heavy whiskey taste at the end. As for the one with candied bacon, we enjoyed it, but the candied bacon was almost too sweet. For our breakfast, we got the Liege Waffles and the Avocado Croissant. They were both absolutely delicious!
After breakfast, we explored the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was a really gorgeous art gallery. The artist that was currently showcased had a lot of artwork that was of a tribal design. It was neat to read about them and see their different pieces.
It was time for another hot chocolate, so we went to Motoretta Gelato for one of theirs, the “Bel Paese”, a hot chocolate with calabrian chile and bergamotto citrus served with zabaione gelato. We will admit it was not our favorite. It reminded us of Mexican hot chocolate. If you like a little spice to your chocolate, then you would like this one.
We then headed to the Capilano Suspension Bridge! It was a perfect time to go as they had everything lit up with pink lights for Valentine’s Day. They even had some fun photo opportunities. It was so incredible to be able to walk through a rainforest canopy and feel like you are a part of the trees. They also had an area that was like walking on the cliffside. We honestly would recommend this experience to everyone visiting Vancouver.
We were going to go get another hot chocolate at the Vancouver Aquarium, but by the time we got there, it was almost closing time. Instead, we chose to walk around Stanley Park for a little bit before heading off to dinner.
For dinner, we chose something a little different. We found this cute little Ukrainian restaurant called Kozak. It was such a cute little restaurant, and the employees were all so welcoming. We tried the Pickled Board for an appetizer, which was very tasty! For our main dishes, we tried the Borsch and the Glechyk stew in a clay pot. I loved that the Borsh came with directions on how to properly eat it. Both of these dishes were fantastic! We ended the night with the Honey Cake for dessert. We absolutely loved everything we tried and would definitely go back!
For a late night hot chocolate, we ended up going to Uno Gelato. The hot chocolate we went with from there was “The Drink of Kings”, a vegan hot chocolate with a special caramel candy-like fruit addition and a little cookie on the side. I do not think I have ever had a date in my hot chocolate before. It had a unique flavor, but it was not our favorite hot chocolate so far.
The next morning, we started off with breakfast at the Fairmont. We had the Avocado Toast and the Eggs Benedict with a side of fresh fruit. We also tried one of their smoothies.
After breakfast, we headed back to the Vancouver Aquarium. We both really like aquariums, and Vancouver has a very nice one. It was fun walking around and seeing all the different animals that they have. We then ended our time there with their hot chocolate for the festival, the “Finding Cocoa”, a hot chocolate in a Finding Nemo mug and a specialty cookie on the side. The hot chocolate was a normal hot chocolate, but now we have a fun mug to remember our trip!
Our last hot chocolate location for our trip was at Honolulu Coffee. They had a really unique hot chocolate, “Raincouver”, that looked like it had a cloud over the hot chocolate. They managed to put a “cloud-shaped” mass of cotton candy onto a stick that suspended above the hot chocolate, making it look like a rain cloud. This was by far the most unique hot chocolate we had tried our entire trip. The hot chocolate was also pretty good. They added in pink Himalayan salt which gave it a nice flavor.
We ended up trying six different hot chocolates over the weekend we were in Vancouver. Out of those six, I would say our favorite was either the “Raincouver” or the “Sweet with a Twist”. It was such a fun experience trying all of the different hot chocolates. It was also our first time visiting Vancouver, which we have already started making a list of things we would like to do next time we go up for a visit. If you ever get a chance to head up to Vancouver for their Hot Chocolate Festival, we would highly recommend it! There are so many participants with many unique and delicious versions of hot chocolate
