The best hot chocolates are made by bean to bar/craft chocolate makers. This is a not so secret secret. They are making the chocolate they use to make your drink from scratch, rather than buying pre made chocolate and melting it down, or even cocoa powder mixes. Every decision they make, from which beans they source and from where to how they create your drink, are all made with a focus on flavor. A word of warning though. Once you have had a hot chocolate from one of these growing number of quality makers around Paris and around the world, you will not only find it hard to drink any other hot chocolate (they just won’t taste good), but you will begin falling into the wonderfully delicious rabbit hole which is the world of craft chocolate. You are welcome.
Ara Chocolate is one of the best, tucked down a quiet street in the 9th arrondissement. Ara was founded by Andrés and Sabrina who moved from Venezuela to Paris many years ago, founding Ara Chocolate in 2015. They recently moved from a tiny shop not too far away to this much larger, but still very small space. Most of their bars are open for tasting, and make sure you taste. All of them have won numerous awards for a reason. Andrés was there, more than happy to answer all of our questions, and the numerous questions posed by the stead stream of customers coming through the doors. Interestingly, of the 6 or so different groups that came in while we were sitting enjoying our drink, half were very obviously die hard fans, passing by to stock up their daily dose of Ara. The other were first timers, entering to buy a gift for a friend who likes chocolate. As Andres walked them through their approach and insisted they taste the products, you could just hear the fireworks going off in their heads as they realised that this quick little stop to buy a random chocolate bar for a friend might just have changed their life (at least the chocolate part of their life.).
Their signature hot chocolate (5.5 euros take away, 6 euros drink in) is a water based drink with one of their chocolate, based on a family recipe. The use of water, rather than milk, allows you to really taste the chocolate without any distractions (milk has its own taste). They switch up which cacaos they use to make these regularly, but it is always based on one of their own (and you can also buy it in little bags to bring home). They have bonbons and icecream, mousse, cake and all sorts of other chocolate goodies.
Ara Chocolate: 41 Bis Rue Condorcet, 75009, Paris, France. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-18H30
