HOT CHOCOLATE FOR THESE COLD DAYS

For years I've believed  that Angelina's on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris was the absolute, unbeatable best place for hot chocolate on the planet.  The setting under the stone arcades, the view out onto the stark, pollarded trees in the Tuileries gardens, the lights of the whirling "manège" in the winter twilight and the vast, elegant room with its frescoes of a French Riviera that is only a memory in 2013. Then there was the chocolate - thick dark brown served in a jug with a little pot of whipped cream.  It remains one of the loveliest places to wile away a cold hour in January.

 I can't say the same of any of the "L'Artisan du Chocolat" venues that I've visited so far - one in a little nook in Selfridge's, one in Notting Hill and one at Borough Market.  The Notting Hill location on Westbourne Grove does have comfortable seating and is not unattractive in a clean, sharp, bright, white sort of a way. But the chocolate - oh the chocolate! It's fabulous - rich and thick and dark  and with a smooth, very slight hint of vanilla and caramel in the aftertaste. But it's not sickeningly sweet and cloying. Since I fell for that Parisian hot chocolate, I've lost my taste for sweets in general so the whole business of hot chocolate was off

 my radar - until a lovely lady in the Artisan's outlet in Selfridge's offered me a sample. And that was it.....Since then I've taken to wandering through the snows of London, hoping to relive that first experience. And here I am above, in Notting Hill, after a brave trek all the way from Ealing.  And there's on the right is the delicious chocolate. In Notting Hill, the cup of chocolate plus 2 chocolates from their selection, will cost you £3. In the little nook in Selfridge's, you can get a good sized paper cup of the stuff for £2.