Every girl's dream!

This afternoon, my friend Laura and I had to go and personally check out the 18th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival at the City Bakery.

I have to say that us girls did it out of the major sense of duty that drives us, going to sacrifice our line to gain knowledge on this very important event and spread the word.

Since 18 years, almost every day of the month of February there is a new flavour of hot chocolate (only 3 flavours are repeated) lovingly prepared and offered to the public...
To my surprise (NOT!) the majority of the people in line for the tasting were girls...

Here is this year's list of days and flavours:

1st - Lemon
2nd - Chili Pepper
3rd - Chinese Cinnamon
4th - Espresso
5th - Ginger
6th - Banana Peel
7th - Caramel
8th - Vanilla Bean
9th - Earl Grey Tea
10th - Moulin Rouge (pomegranate, espresso, dark chocolate, lemon)
11th - Tropical
12th - Bourbon
13th - Milk Chocolate
14th - Love Potion
15th - Vietnamese Cinnamon
16th - Hi Ho Pistachio
17th - Milk Chocolate
18th - Darkest Dark Chocolate
19th - Creamy Stout
20th - Happy
21st - Sunken Treasure
22nd - Ginger
23rd - Arabian Nights (cinnamon, liquorice, cardamon, pepper, coriander and a variety of tea leaves)
24th - Ode To The Polar Bear
25th - Beer & Brown Sugar
26th - Shangri-La
27th - Banana Peel
28th - Festival Finale (TBD)

If you are wondering about some of the favours such as Ode to the polar bear or Sunken treasure they are a mystery to me as well... :-S

On arrival we are greeted by chunky marshmallow curtains... I have never seen a marshmallow that big and wonder what would ever happen to them if I dared taking them home to my furry kitty friends... something tells me they wouldn't last long (and yes, I'm referring to the curtains not to my pests...)

That's quite fascinating though possibly not very practical to keep...

The bakery is big and it's starting to get crowded. It's that time of the day when a cup of tea (in this case of hot chocolate) is a need more than a want and people coming out from their offices, or in town for any reason, would think it a good idea to join the queue for a gulp of this rich, thick and perfumed treasure to warm the soul.

Today it's Lemon Hot Chocolate day and my brain rebels at the idea of anything citrusy mixed with anything milky but I also think that it must be something worth trying if it's the flavour chosen to open the festival... After all, one wouldn't want to scare the clients away on the first day!!!

So Laura and I shoot a quick video with our cameras at the entrance for Laura's Blog and get in.
Laua's blog is in Italian but, if you have even a basic understanding of the language, it's well worth a visit as all of NYC best hidden secrets are revealed!

We immediately notice the TV crew of Channel 4 news on site to report the event, this must be really good!

We join the line of people waiting and finally, when after a very long while a lady comes to ask us if we still had to pay, we realise that we were standing in the wrong spot and completely skipped a massive queue extending all around the main counter on the other side of where we were standing... I know this may sound typical Italian but this is actually typical of Laura and Dona... no bad intentions, just a bit ditzy!!!!

We order our chocolates and I say yes to a marshmallow because I belong to the school of thought that if one has to sin, the sin has to be worth to be committed!

When the cups arrive this is what we see:

The marshmallow in my chocolate is a white brick, same as the one they used for the curtains. Should I eat it? When I finally decide to pull it out from the chocolate my fingers feel the softness of the texture, my nose smells the very distinctive vanilla perfume it gives off and when I bite into it, it just perfectly melts in my mouth... I have never tasted anything like that... and to top it off it starts to offer me a bit of that lemon flavour my hot chocolate is supposed to taste of.

And I'm surprised... very pleasantly I must say!

Against all odds, lemon and chocolate marry extremely well, the drink is soothing, a bit exotic and I do polish the mug till the very last drop.

Unfortunately I have to go back to the UK on the 6th February but if the rest of the month is anything like today I may even consider go plea with Air France to move my departure date to the 1st of March and beg my classmates to take notes of all the medical lectures I'd miss during the month... After all life is made of priorities and who could ever deny that something like this is every girl's dream?!?