Ah yes, the start of the new year brings new resolutions, but also marks the return of the annual Hot Chocolate Festival presented by CityFood Magazine (which may actually go against everyone's favourite resolution of eating healthier and keeping fit ;D).

The first location I headed to was The Last Crumb for 'His Lordship's HC'- a vanilla Earl Grey hot chocolate. It came with a vanilla bean butter cookie that I enjoyed due to my love for vanilla. The drink itself was quite nice- I'm not too crazy about tea, but the Earl Grey flavour wasn't overpowering and I actually found it quite comforting as it was a drizzly day (of course), and it was perfect for warming me up. The price of this was $6.30.

kicking off #hotchocolatefest with a london fog hot chocolate- perfect for a quiet study sunday. thumbs up for the vanilla cookie as well! #rozreviews #howmanyfilterscaniputonthispictomakeitmoreexciting

A photo posted by roz ♡ (@rawrzuhlind) on Jan 17, 2016 at 3:35pm PST

Next up was French Made Baking, which, if you've read my hot chocolate posts before, is consistently one of my favourite spots. This year was no different, I'd have to say. Last year, I raved about their Dulcey Valrhona white chocolate, so of course I couldn't miss out on their 'Magic Beans' offering- tonka and vanilla bean infused Dulcey white chocolate. I'm not really sure what I could say that I haven't said over and over again- it's sweet but not sickeningly so, and it's so unbelievably creamy and smooth. You can try this on February 3rd, 7th, and 11th (and it's $6.60!) The rosemary and sea salt puff pastries were a nice contrast- so crisp and savoury.

Bella Gelateria is yet another place that needs no introduction, I'm sure. My friend Anika and I stopped by for 'Before 9' and 'Bx3' and our total was $14.99 for both (~$7.50 for one!) Before 9 is a peppermint infused hot chocolate- the peppermint wasn't too strong, which is great, but I found that post-sip, you're sort of left with this chocolate...film in your mouth? I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it'd probably be a good idea to have a bit of water on hand. As for the Bx3, it was pretty much just banana bread in liquid form, and we both were really impressed by it. Before 9 comes with a rice crispy (nothing special), and Bx3 comes with a slice of Erin Ireland's famous banana bread. Yum!



Next up on the list? Mink Chocolates. They've been a sort of hit-or-miss for me in the past, as I found their offerings to be very gimmicky (but I guess whatever grabs the public's attention, right?) I was prepared to give them a miss yet again, but in the end, I couldn't resist trying 'It's A Clusterfluff', which is really quite a "normal" drink by their standards, haha. This is a milk chocolate based hot chocolate with torched marshmallow fluff on top, and you get handed a sparkler on the side. Thanks to my friend Christina for holding on to mine- I really struggled to get a picture before it burnt out completely! As for the drink- I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It is a bit on the sweeter side though, and I'd definitely recommend mixing the fluff completely into the drink as opposed to trying to eat it- the taste on its own wasn't too appealing to me. Once again, Mink's drink is one of the most expensive ones at $8.95.

• french made baking: $6.60
• chocolate arts: $8.35
• soirette: $6.95