Starbucks, Espresso Royale

Because the first couple of sources for the boston.com top 10 hot chocolates in the Boston area have been lackluster, I think I'm going to shift the hot chocolate project. Not only will I try the top 10 provided by boston.com, but I'll try others, and at the end, I'll provide my own top 10 list. Recommendations of places to try are welcome!

Last week, after the disappointing Upstairs on the Square hot chocolate, I tried a regular old Starbucks hot chocolate on Wednesday afternoon, near my office. I'm sorry to say, it was the best yet: This hot chocolate was rich and chocolatey with a decadent mouthfeel. I had it in my awesome contigo mug, so it was easy to shake it up periodically (which I do out of habit), so I don't know how much, if any, precipitate there was, but overall, this was a very solid hot chocolate. B+

I also had high hopes for Espresso Royale, whose coffee and sandwiches I know and like, and because it's a cool cafe, I thought for sure the hot chocolate would be tasty! So veek and I went there Friday afternoon, but it was a bad sign when she took a sip of hers first and said, "Well, that's disappointing." So I tried mine, and ... it was, indeed, disappointing. It would have been much better to call it a moderately steamed milk with a hint of chocolate. In fact, if it had been called that, I might even have enjoyed it! As it was billed as hot chocolate, though, it was pretty lackluster. It was milky, thin and barely chocolatey at all. C-