Florence’s Best Hot Chocolate

We are not talking about thin tasteless hot chocolate made from a packet of powder found in America.  Florentine hot chocolate is in an entirely different league, in fact, like so many things in Italy, it is more of an art.

The charming powder blue shop called Vestri (Borgo degli Albizi 11/r) bursts at the seams with everything one could possibly make out of chocolate: truffles, bars, gelato, spreads, pastas, panettone, and a cylinder machine steadily twirling thick hot chocolate. This was the pot of gold for which I’d been searching.

Leonardo Vestri, the shop owner, appeared and handed me a cup of hot chocolate. I let the sweet and creamy chocolate glide into my mouth and then slide gloriously down my throat leaving a light aftertaste of cocoa powder and some chocolate evidence on my lips. I could taste the cacao, the very essence of chocolate, and declared with a smile, “This is real hot chocolate.”

Vestri’s smallest hot chocolate portion is only one euro and is just the right amount to satisfy your taste buds. For a few cents extra, you can add rum, whipped cream or spices (nutmeg, ginger or chili pepper). Leonardo explained that he makes it from his homemade chocolate, cocoa powder and fresh Tuscan milk with no additives whatsoever.  It is chocolate, plain and simple.

Vestri is a true family business that makes all of its chocolate by hand in its tiny shop. The family gets their cocoa beans from their home plantation in the Dominican Republic, a beautiful country where, according to Leonardo, you can get the best high quality cocoa beans.

His favorite delicacy in his shop is hot chocolate affogato: a special cream gelato served with hot chocolate.

Vestri’s benches just outside are regularly full of happy customers. Locals and tourists alike come in to indulge in a small cup of hot chocolate, a warm up station on the way to wherever they were going, a nice break from the cold.  (amelia murphy)