The best hot chocolates in Barcelona

You’d think that hot chocolates would be awful in a country that enjoys a climate that generally encourages the drinking of ice cold beer whilst scantily clad, however, you’d be wrong. Spanish hot chocolate is served thick and rich and so sweet you can sometimes feel your teeth bend. It’s a meal in itself and as such is considered a breakfast food although you can enjoy it all day and is often served with churros – think long doughnut fingers dipped in sugar.

If you really don’t care about cholesterol then hot chocolates served with cream – known locally as a Suizo – are the way to go. You can go up a dress size in one sitting if you’re really lucky.

So, if you want your hot choc fix in Barcelona or are simply a little underweight or just wish to throw caution to the wind, here are the best purveyors of the glorious brown stuff:

Escriba
Old City
www.escriba.es

Right on the Rambla and serving divine hot chocolate beautifully made with top ingredients and available with chilli powder or without. Cream or without cream. Utterly beautiful and the shop is a photo opportunity in itself.

Petrixol
Old City
www.xocoa-bcn.com/

It’s difficult to say anything negative about Petrixol’s hot chocolates other than they are probably a little bit too divine. Delicious thick liquid chocolate served beneath a large crown of proper cream – none of your aerosol rubbish here, thank you.

Bubo
Old City
bubo.es/

The hot chocolate is dark and mildly spicy. It’s not vegan but it’s low on dairy.  This is slightly oily and one for the connoisseur who favours an outrageously dark and slightly bitter hot choc with a slightly spicy edge to it.

Buenas Migas
Various locations
www.buenasmigas.com/

Hot chocolates served at this popular chain come in four varieties: normal, double chocolate, Swiss, which includes cream from an aerosol and insanely sweet chocolate sauce or galleta which involves spray cream and fractured biscuit pieces.

Hot chocolates are best served on chilly terraces during the winter whilst watching the world pass you by or nose buried deep within a book.