When you’re in the grip of winter’s icy chill, a soothing cup of hot chocolate goes a long way towards helping you feel comforted. Here is a round-up of some of the capital city’s best hot chocolate spots to help you through the last stretch of cold months. Spoil yourself! You deserve it.

Brasserie de Paris (Waterkloof)

This establishment continues the long-standing tradition of the Gaulois Gourmands and creates the most satisfying, rich, dark hot chocolate. There is something very satisfying about the aroma, rich colour and velvety texture of a steaming mug of the best French hot chocolate.

If your taste leans towards a sophisticated, less sweet hot chocolate drink, then you should order yours from this French restaurant in Waterkloof. You may be wondering what sets Brasserie de Paris’s French hot chocolate apart?

The restaurant imports dark and white chocolate directly from France, which are blended to form this delectable hot drink. Expect to pay R60 for your serving. It’s worth every cent!

Lucky Bread Company (Brooklyn Mall)

This popular Pretoria eatery is no slouch when it comes to serving high-quality meals and drinks to a discerning public and has attracted and trained some of the best baristas in the city. They serve some of the best and prettiest hot beverages in town.

Lucky Bread has developed their own, in-house hot chocolate blend and offers three variations: white hot chocolate, classic (dark) hot chocolate and salted caramel hot chocolate. Expect to pay R36 (short) or R41 (tall).

Aroma Gelato and Waffle House (Pretoria East, Hazelwood, Brooklyn)

These masters of all things sweet and delicious have pulled it off again with their hot chocolate. Aroma has been steadily growing in size and reputation and uses the finest Belgian chocolate to produce three varieties of hot chocolate.

Chose between white, dark or milk hot chocolate for R44.

Chocolat et Café (Shere, Pretoria East)

This restaurant may have moved to a smallholding in the east, but this just adds to the charm. The well-trained baristas still serve their signature white, milk and dark hot chocolate.

You can choose between a thin, drinking hot chocolate (R42) or the traditional hot chocolate, which is made using melted chocolate.

If you’re not yet familiar with the delights available from Chocolat et Café, make sure to visit their rustic new home in the East.

Crawdaddy’s (Menlyn/Brooklyn)

This is a great place for a convivial meal with friends, but when you hope to satisfy your need for a hug in a mug, try Crawdaddy’s hot chocolate. The team at Crawdaddy’s has developed a closely guarded, secret recipe to make their slow-cooked, caramelised chocolate base sauce.

This sauce is the carrier of the majority of the chocolate flavour in both the hot and ice-cream based treats at Crawdaddy’s.

The flavours are balanced between dark and milk chocolate and blended without the use of emulsifiers. Try this “secret sauce” hot chocolate at only R40 per serving.

Vovo Telo (Loftus Park/Brooklyn Bridge)

At Loftus, this beautifully repurposed building once housed the legendary ‘Sin Bin’ next to the historic Loftus Stadium.

When Loftus Park was developed, the historic structure was preserved, but completely re-imagined as a modern, trendy restaurant known for the fresh baked fare and French-style hot beverages.

At Brooklyn Bridge, a sleek, modern, glass restaurant serves the comforting fare synonymous with the Vovo Telo brand.

True to the restaurant’s authentic style, they use only chocolate and milk in making their hot chocolate. This creates a rich and flavoursome hot chocolate. Choose between a medium (R35) or their Big Shot hot chocolate in the mega size (R40).

Also try the convenient and delicious options and variations offered by the following popular chains:

Vida e Caffè

This chain offers three different options (classic, white, hazelnut) in three different sizes (solo, mucho, vente)

• White hot chocolate        36     40     45
• Classic hot chocolate     36     40      45
• Hazelnut hot chocolate  39     43      47

Starbucks

Starbucks offers a choice between the classic (R44) or white hot chocolate (R46).

Krispy Kreme

This American chain offers three variations in the size of their classic hot chocolate.

• Small     R37
• Regular  R43
• Large     R47