First off, the fact that hot chocolate is considered more of a kid’s drink rather than an adult beverage does not seem right. Secondly, cancel all of your plans for the next two weeks because the annual Hot Chocolate Festival is back.

This year, the festival is highlighting 39 of the Vancouver’s most beloved cafés and their unique yet remarkably scrumptious hot chocolate creations.

Like many, I have been struggling to navigate the feelings of lethargy and anxiety brought by the pandemic. But I’ve recently learned to cope with these emotions by tossing absolutely all of my self-restraint and willpower—when it comes to food—directly into the wind.

So on Sunday morning, with a belly reeling from excessive sugar consumption the night prior, I moseyed over to BjornBar Bakery and Café in Edgemont Village.

I had previously spent hours painstakingly studying the festival’s participating vendors and memorizing the descriptions of their sugary creations. So I was confident that the hot chocolate from BjornBar would satiate my demanding sweet tooth that requires attention every hour on the dot.

And boy, was I right.

The café was serving a creamy Earl Grey tea-infused hot chocolate that goes by the confident moniker, “To A T”. It was generously topped with whipped cream and four morsels of Earl Grey truffle bar.

The hot chocolate was sweet but not too sweet. The addition of the Earl Grey tea gave the drink a silky milk chocolate taste, which I appreciated as I am not a fan of dark chocolate. The tea flavour was mild and knew its place—watching from the stage wings as chocolate was intended to be the star of the show.

But better yet, the hot chocolate didn’t coat my palate with a waxy residue like the ones you get from a vending machine at the rec center. It also did not fill my mouth with a tablespoon of bitter chalk-like powder upon the last sip—winning. 

The four Earl Grey chocolate truffles perched atop the mound of fluffy whipped cream contributed to the overall taste while making the drink exceedingly photogenic. Garnishes most definitely need to be normalized on hot chocolate like they are on Caesars.

The whipped cream was sweetened to perfection and melted down with the remaining buttery truffles to create the best last sip possible.

It’s safe to say that I’ll be swapping out my regular warm bean water for this gourmet hot chocolate until the end of the festival on February 14.