It's back!

OOh lala! I had the chile pepper last year! It's so decadent that you have to get a small, I feel. You kinda have to get one, right?

I wish I could. I can't go out right now. I do have hot chocolate at home. So maybe it will remind me to partake of it in my own place of dwelling. Thanks for sharing the article.

Hot chocolate at home just isn't the same! Probably because it isn't as bad for you as the City Bakery design. . .

@JenMac spot on its pretty luscious-the city bakery one isn't it and a small is more than enough unless you want to have a chocolate overload..

@JenMac Since you are from the West Coast you must know Coffee Bean and Tea leaf.. I so love their ice-blendeds and try to recreate them at home with their special dutch chocolate powder.. its just not the same ..so in the winters I mix a spoon of the chocolate with coffee and top it with some skim milk.. it kinda works .. a more full bodied hot chocolate but nowhere near as rich as City Bakery.

@JenMac: It doesn't matter to me what hot chocolate I drink as long as it is hot and sweet. I hate drinking cold and bitter tasting hot chocolate.

@hhusted the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 is supposed to be legendary not that I have had it .. its always overrun with tourists.

@uptowngirl: I love the Coffee Bean! The vanilla soy iced latte is the stuff that coffee dreams are made of! And, it always smells good in the Coffee Bean.

@Uptowngirl: No thanks. Why do you think it is called hot chocolate. If it were meant to be cold, it would have been called cold chocolate. :)

OH YEAH! Thanks for the reminder; I totally discovered this last year thanks to one of these forums! Also everyone remember to get the shot of hot chocolate rather than the small - it's so much more doable.

@JenMac I wonder why have they not expanded into NYC, they( Coffee Bean) are all over Asia.. even in Mumbai where Starbucks hasnt arrived yet.

@BroadwayBK I had a ticket booked for Feb 21 st to come back to NYC but probably will change it most of my friends say its brutal the winter this year ..so it looks like i will miss out on the hot chocolate festival this year. Agree about the shot though substantial enough,

Had chocolate and hot peppers last night - whadda winter treat, man.

@uptown, I have often wondered that myself. Is there an anti-Coffee Bean campaign on the east coast or something?

Whoa - I always thought Coffee Bean was like In-N-Out and wanted to keep their brand exclusive to their locale or something. Had no idea they were all over Asia... no fair.

@uptowngirl I'll drink a shot for you.

@JenMac really don't know ..I even wrote to the company asking them..of course I never got a reply.:) Those icy drinks would be perfect for the NYC summers though maybe they think they will not have much business during the frigid winters? maybe that's the reason.

@BroadwayBK many thanks!

@JenMac @uptowngirl There is a FB page asking for thoughts and opinions on opening a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in NYC...naturally: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38043075824

Does anyone remember that updated Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous show that used to be on VH1? I always remember how it claimed that when Britney Spears was spending time in NYC, she would send a out to California to fetch some lattes from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

@BroadwayBK thanks for that I just joined it!

@NeverSleeps Really? thats a bit over the top isn't it?

Wait . . that can't be true. They would be so watered down by the time they got here. Unless she had enough money to buy a teleporter and tell no one of it.

@uptowngirl @JenMac Yeah... it wasn't really believable. Those shows are always claiming celebs send jets back to Cali or NYC for this or that. But for some reason I remember the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf reference.

Sigh. I miss Los Angeles. Especially in light of this icy rain we are supposed to be getting.

Oh, well, at least we have hot chocolate month. What days are you guys planning on going? I wonder what Ode to the Polar Bear hot chocolate is about? Is that a global warming reference? :)

@BroadwayBK; I wish i could be in LA now.

@JenMac: Don't be surprised by what celebrities do. They have the money to do what they want and any time they want.

@BroadwayBK Perhaps? though some of their new flavors sound yum.. spicy fig anyone?

There is probably nothing better than a fig. Nothing. I'm also going in for the What Would Faulkner Drink? I just have to.

@Uptowngirl: Why do Indian people use spices so much? Is it a culture thing? A religious purpose? Or simply an acquired taste? I'm curious about that. I know Mexicans love hot foods to.

@hhusted I will have to go into the history of our culinary traditions to find an answer for that.. History books tell us India has always produced spices like black pepper, cardamom, cloves, and the Europeans- The Dutch and the Portuguese in the 16th Century undertook elaborate naval expeditions to source these spices and bring them to the west. So perhaps spices always formed the base for our cooking..I guess its a matter of taste and preference as well.

@Uptowngirl: Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, whatever you like is your taste. If you like it, go for it.

@BroadwayBK What a great name! - "What Would Faulkner Drink"

@Uraniumfish @BroadwayBK What WOULD Faulkner drink? Whiskey?

@NeverSleeps I guess so .. it perhaps its a spiked hot chocolate..only Broadway BK can tell us after she tries it..

@NeverSleeps @uptowngirl It looks like the Village Voice agrees with you: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2011/01/hot_chocolate_f.php

I'll be sure to let you know what they're putting in there! Though I don't think City Bakery has any alcoholic items....

@BroadwayBK I thought as much .. I thought City Bakery would perhaps just spike it as I always believed when alcohol is heated much of its alcoholic content is burned off .. apparently that's not true as this post illustrates
http://www.chow.com/food-news/54140/does-cooking-alcohol-really-burn-it-all-off/
so I doubt they will put whiskey in the brews and now I am really curious as to see what it contains.

@uptowngirl Same here! I guess something...southern? But I can't imagine what that is if not bourbon. Maybe it's like a virgin mint julep hot chocolate.

@Oh, well, then! Contrary to what City Bakery thinks, Faulkner would most certainly allow himself a little whiskey, a little bourbon...

@Uraniumfish: How about throwing in scotch to. This will make your list complete, or nearly complete.

Faulkner would probably never drink a sissy hot chocolate. But, I do like the name.

You guys got me with spicy fig. That sounds like the most delicious thing in the whole wide world! I love figs! When I go to Italy in the summers sometimes I can eat them fresh off the trees...amazing!

@ajadedidaelist So. Jealous.

@JenMac I dunno; it's not like Faulkner was a Hemmingway. He seemed a more sensitive soul, with his oil painting and verse writing and whatnot.

@ajadedidealist I too love figs and spicy fig does sound delicious.

@BroadwayBk He painted oils? Are we talking about the same dude? I thought he crashed private planes and divorced women left and right.

@Uraniumfish Huh? Hemingway crashed planes and divorced women. Faulkner just married one and cheated on her; he painted oils as a kid.

Weird, my post never showed up . . . anyhoo, regardless of how sensitive he may be, I don't know one dude that ever drinks hot chocolate. And, aren't all writers supposed to be lushes? I feel like half of the old school NY literary circle was permanently banned from that bar on east 8th.

@BroadwayBK: Are you talking about William Faulkner. I only knew him as a novelist and short story writer.

@BroadwayBK: Oops. I just found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner.

He delved into oils, but after the 6th grade, didn't like it, so he went toward literature instead.

@JenMac :) my dude does.. last Sunday we were at the chi chi Joel Robuchon salon de The and while I had my usual decaf he ordered a hot chocolate.. was a bit surprised as usually its my beverage of choice.

@JenMac That no guy has a sweet tooth is definitely a myth. I don't think I would hang out with a guy who was too macho for a hot chocolate... And does being a lush automatically rule out any hot chocolate intake? :)

@BroadwayBK Well I'll be - he did paint in oils as a kid. I have to say, of the many literature Nobel prize winners he is most certainly one who deserved it.

@uptown and neversleeps: I stand corrected then. I suppose I did always assume that lushness led to non chocolateness. :)

City Bakery is sporting bourbon hot chocolate tomorrow... Wonder if What Would Faulkner Drink? is another name for bourbon hot chocolate. In any case, I'm going to try to get there for that tomorrow, in between bouts of resume-updating!

@JenMac Faulkner was definitely a lush! But he actually quit drinking during writing stints.

@BroadwayBK I thought they were not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages.

Lushness is a great word.

@Uraniumfish you bet!

@uptowngirl I don't know? I'm not only confused, I sadly didn't make it in for What Would Faulkner Drink day. Apparently it involved moonshine, however: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/02/what-would-faulkner-drink.html That article says you don't have to be 21 to order the beverage, so the alcohol must be negligible and for flavor only.

@BroadwayBK thanks for unraveling the mystery though...

No prob. Did anyone get to the spicy fig hot chocolate in time today? I spent most of today indoors, rained out.

@BroadwayBk speaking of festivals did anyone go to the Clinton Street Bakery Pancake festival it was held all of February I believe? There is yet another interesting festival coming around..the Martini festival for two weeks in March.
http://tastingtable.com/multipart_article/nyc/4/Martini_Week.htm

I've never been to any of these festivals, but if I ever open an eatery I will be sure to host something similar. I've seen so much press on the hot chocolate festival!

@NeverSleeps I think February is a dud month for restaurant sales so maybe these festivals are a way to drum up sales in a go slow month?

I'm a big fan of the Whittards line of hot chocolates - spicy, white, luxury, etc. Anyone else enjoy it? It may be instant, but it's awfully good!

@ajadedidealist Have only tried their teas havent had their hot chocolate..maybe over Easter when I am in London

I've never even heard of it. Do they sell that here...?

It's an English thing, but it might be at Whole Foods and other such specialty stores. Speaking of which, how about Godiva hot chocolate? Is that decadent or what?

Is hot chocolate season over? Seems like everywhere I go, people are eager for iced beverages. Seeing as how it's only 50 degrees outside, this kind of ordering seems like half wishful thinking and half joy that it's no longer scarf weather.