Some of Montréal’s best hot chocolate
Nothing says cozy and comforting like a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Luscious, warm, rich and sweet, the beverages listed below are the perfect mix of premium ingredients and creativity. From classic to completely decadent and utterly funky, dive in and enjoy!
Au Festin de Babette
Au Festin de Babette is a classic go-to spot for great hot chocolate in Montréal. Its hot chocolate selection is separated into three categories: dark chocolate, white chocolate and Valrhona Grands Crus. In all, twelve different flavours for you to enjoy, from a classic mix to comforting brews flavoured with spices, orange, nuts or piment d’Espelette.
4085 Saint-Denis Street
C’ChoColat
C’ChoColat takes toppings to a whole new level! Its crazy and fun concoctions include hot chocolates topped with salted caramel, Oreo bits, marshmallows, and more! Pick from one of its five hot chocolate flavours (including a vegan one) and add some extra toppings for a more decadent drink.
1255 Bishop Street
Le Butterblume
Le Butterblume has become one of the prettiest and most popular cafés in Mile End from day one. Its take on the tartine made on its homemade sourdough bread is now legendary. Its hot chocolate concoction is made with 65% Weiss chocolate, some cocoa and love. Oh, and milk of course, regular or plant based.
5836 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
Marius et Fanny
Half a dozen flavours of hot chocolate await you at Marius et Fanny: white, caramel, milk 38%, Ghana 40%, Guayaquil 64% and Tanzania 75%. The intense flavours include some single origin chocolates. Marius et Fanny also serves special seasonal concoctions, like this winter’s “chocobombs” in 4 flavours: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, candy cane and spices.
2006 Saint-Hubert Street
Automne Boulangerie
The Scandinavian-inspired Rosemont bakery serves some of the best bread in the city. Its pastries are also delicious and so is its hot chocolate. Automne uses 64% dark chocolate, cocoa powder, a sprinkle of local St-Laurent salt. You can get yours with regular or plant-based milk. Either way, it’s delicious!
6500 Christophe-Colomb Avenue & 1470 Bélanger Street
Sophie Sucrée
Vegan bakery Sophie Sucrée specializes in pastries and cakes that are dairy free and/or allergy friendly. Its regular hot chocolate is served all year long and is a scrumptious mélange of chunks of Belgian dark chocolate melted in the client’s choice of (plant based) milk and finished with a pinch of salt. They also have a mint hot chocolate made with their homemade mint syrup and adorned with crushed candy canes. The beverages can be topped with homemade vegan marshmallow.
3770 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
Hof Kelsten & Hof Sucrée
This Mile End Jewish-style bakery has garnered a loyal following since its opening. Hof Kelsten’s flaky pastries and scrumptious breads are some of my favourites, hands down. Their hot chocolate is made by preparing a thick Valhrona chocolate ganache, which is then thinned out with hot steamed milk, in the same manner one would make a latte. You can grab your hands on one of these soul-warming concoctions at the original location in Mile End and at sister bakery and provider of all things sweet, Hof Sucrée.
4524 Saint-Laurent Boulevard & 400 Atlantic Avenue, RC-102
Café Dei Campi
Everything at Café Dei Campi tastes delicious. The vegan pastries are some of the best in town, regardless of whether or not they contain butter or eggs. The hot chocolate is no exception and is prepared with extra brute cocoa with vanilla, sugar and a touch of salt and your choice of soy, oat or homemade almond milk.
6201 Chabot Street
Avanaa
The little Villeray chocolate factory makes its exceptional bars from beans that it sources, roasts and prepares in house. Avanaa’s classic hot chocolate is a rich mix made with their 64% stone-ground dark chocolate with 64% chocolate. Don’t forget to top yours with a homemade marshmallow. The classic as well as the chaï and maple mixes are available for purchase to make at home.
309 Gounod Street
Janine Café
The popular brunch and lunch spot also serves several hot chocolates made with a variety of beans, including white chocolate. Try one of Janine Café’s most popular drink made from 58% chocolate or its spiced one, created by adding a warm spice blend and topped with a cinnamon stick. Janine also serves a deconstructed hot chocolate that includes a small teapot with melted chocolate, a pitcher of your choice of milk (cow or plant-based) and homemade marshmallows.
3900 Wellington Street
MELK Bar à Café
With a few coffee shops across the city, Melk Café is slowly expanding its coffee empire through Montréal, to the delight of their fans. The Melk hot chocolate is made like a latte with a dark or milk chocolate base and an addition of steamed milk. It’s best served with their homemade marshmallows!
1206 Stanley Street, 5612 Monkland Avenue & 1155 Metcalfe Street
Pikolo Espresso Bar
This little café in the Quartier des Spectacles has been a destination for discerning coffee lovers. Pikolo’s hot chocolate base is a dairy-free, homemade chocolate syrup made with 54% Callebaut chocolate. A milk of your choice is then added to the syrup base. That same chocolate base is also used in its mochas.
1635 Clark Street
Arhoma
The Hochelaga-Maisonneuve bakery and pastry shop is one of the most loved in Montréal for its baked goods. Arhoma’s dark hot chocolate is made with 70% dark chocolate by Cacao Barry, sugar and cocoa powder. They also have a milk chocolate version. They both come in beautiful containers to take home.
15 Place Simon-Valois & 1700 Ontario Street East
Fous Desserts
This popular Plateau Mont-Royal pastry shop is a destination for lovers of all things sweet. Fous Desserts offer 7 different hot chocolate mixes, 4 house blends and 3 made with Valrhona chocolate, including a 65% cocoa one from Papua, with a nice smoky flavour. Try their Chaï mix with Valrhona chocolate, cocoa powder, spices from local shop Épices de Cru and black Assam tea.
809 Laurier Avenue East
Barley, cereal bar
Little Burgundy’s self-proclaimed “cereal bar” Barley serves Levantine-inspired smoothie bowls, breakfast and brunch items and, of course, cereal. Barley’s hot chocolate is a rich concoction that can be topped with a handful of marshmallows or their signature cereal topping for that extra sweetness and crunch.
2613 Notre-Dame Street West
Alice & Theo
Located in Verdun, charming Alice & Theo is named after the owners' children. It specializes in artisanal ice cream and cream puffs, among other treats. Alice & Theo offers a few hot chocolates, one with 65% dark chocolate and another lighter one made with 41% chocolate. They also offer a matcha and white chocolate latte made with their green matcha sourced directly from Japan as well as a blue matcha with white chocolate and lavender.
3870 Wellington Street & 73 Rue De la Gauchetiere West
L’affaire est chocolat
Beaubien Street’s L’affaire est chocolat features a “hot chocolate bar” where you can customize your hot chocolate. Choose a chocolate (anything from a house brand to single origin ones with different cocoa content), then choose a size and milk ratio, add some “character” in the form of spices, aromas or syrups, and finally, top it off with some extras such as whipped cream or marshmallows. It’s the perfect drink every time! They have 18 chocolates to choose from, including some from Vietnam.
2350 Beaubien Street East
Café Chez Téta
Beloved Plateau spot Café Chez Téta specializes in Lebanese delicacies. One of their brews is made by expertly combining a homemade 70% cocoa chocolate ganache infused with aniseed and caraway, for a drink that is reminiscent of sundrenched faraway lands.
227 Rachel Street East
M. & Mme Chocolat
This Petite Patrie chocolate shop prepares two kinds of hot chocolates. The first, their Classic, is made with a house mix of 66% dark chocolate, cocoa and oat milk. The second, their Boréal mix, is made with a mix of 66% chocolate and some local spices such as Gorria pepper (our local Espelette) and Québec juniper berries. The mixes are also available to go in addition to a dark chocolate bomb that contains a vanilla marshmallow.
273 Beaubien Street East
Café Ferlucci
Cute Villeray Italian coffeshop Ferlucci has had a loving following since day 1 due to their excellent coffee, their friendly attitude, and their cozy ambiance. Their regular hot chocolate with marshmallows is available all year round. To get into the Holiday spirit, they serve a peppermint hot chocolate available from November to Mid-January. And their spicy hot chocolate with dark chocolate, plant-based milk and notes of cinnamon, chili and ginger makes an appearance for a few weeks towards mid-January.
432 De Castelnau Street East
La Bête à Pain
La Bête à Pain makes some of the best breads and pastries in the city at their two Montréal locations (with a third one in Laval). Their hot chocolate is a mixture of frothed milk with two kinds of chocolate from Belgian chocolate maker Callebaut Belgian.
114 Fleury Street West & 195 Young Street
La Cave à Manger
La Cave à Manger’s circular croissant may have gone viral on social media but their matcha hot chocolate is just as enticing. It’s made by mixing their white chocolate ganache infused with Camelia Sinensis matcha with oat milk. The drink is then topped with a homemade marshmallow made with the same matcha that’s toasted directly in the cup. The pumpkin spice hot chocolate is also a hit. It’s made with pumpkin chai ganache and topped with a homemade cinnamon marshmallow and graham cracker crumbles.
386 Saint-Paul Street East
Miette Boulangerie
You can find some of the best sourdough breads in Montréal at Griffintown’s Miette Boulangerie. Surprisingly, you can also find one of the best hot chocolates in town made with their very own blend of dark chocolate, cocoa powder, milk and sugar, and topped with a giant dollop of whipped cream.
317 De Lévis Street
Maison Sauvage
Outremont’s Maison Sauvage makes traditional Viennese-style hot chocolate. The rich beverage is made with dark chocolate the old fashion way. You can choose between the classic hot chocolate, the choco-meringue that comes with a choice of flavoured meringue (vanilla, chocolate, etc.) or their viral choco-deluxe that comes with a side of house whipped cream that you add to your hot chocolate. Pair your beverage with one of their over-the-top cookie creations for a blissfully sweet moment.
162 Bernard Ouest
Mayssam Samaha
Mayssam Samaha is a food and travel writer and blogger and the founder behind the blog Will Travel for Food. She travels the world in search of the next culinary discovery. From Iceland to South Africa, she’s already visited over 36 countries and there’s nothing she enjoys more than wandering around a farmers’ market in a foreign city. She is also the founder of the SAISONS intimate dinner series highlighting Québec products and chefs.