If you have a sweet tooth and enjoy creativity in a cup, then mark your calendars for this upcoming citywide fête.

The eighth annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival returns to town from January 20 to February 14, conveniently coinciding with the annual Dine Out Vancouver Festival.

Spanning a total of 26 days, this popular event will feature 35 participating cafés, bakeries, chocolatiers, ice-cream shops, and pastry joints that will offer 75 mouth-watering flavours.

A few newcomers that will be joining the festival include La Glace Ice Cream (specializing in creamy French-style ice cream), James’ Gelato at Mahony & Sons (a pop-up version of James Coleridge’s [formerly of Bella Gelateria] new company), and a select number of Vancouver Farmers Market vendors that will offer hot cocoa at the winter markets (The Bean Buggy, Maples Sugar Shack, Nuez Beverage Co, and more).

Plenty of creativity (the magic ingredient) have been added to this year’s hot chocolate flavours, including #33 “Indiana Jones and the Valley of the Lost Rare Chocolate” at Gem Chocolates (2029 West 41^st Avenue). It features a rare chocolate known as the “Maranon Fortunato No. 4”, which is made from cacao that was recently re-discovered in Peru’s Maranon River Valley.

#17 “At The Movies” at Chez Christophe (4717 Hastings Street, Burnaby) features 42-percent Ecuadorian, single-origin milk chocolate with popcorn-infused whipped cream, corn nut sprinkles, and caramel sauce. Enjoy it with chocolate-covered corn nuts.

With so many flavours to try, you’ll likely have to sip on more than one cup of hot chocolate each day to taste every single creation before the festival ends.

For a full list of this year’s Hot Chocolate participants and flavours, click here.