The most absurdly delicious hot chocolates in Vienna

Where: Kohlmarkt 14, 1010

Opening times:
MON–SUN: 8am–7pm

Many locals will have the name of this famous cafe / Konditorei on their lips before you even finish your question: Where can I get a good hot chocolate in Vienna? The royal looking Demel Cafe has earned its fame. The deserts and pastries at Demel are exquisite, and the hot chocolate is da’ bomb; creamy, sweet, and so chocolatey, you can smell it! The hot chocolate is made with a mixture of dark and milk chocolate and undergoes a special treatment before it reaches your lips – it gets heated up, cooled down, then heated up again to become the delicious and devilish dessert in a cup that it is.

Price guide:
Hot chocolate = 6.90€

Website: www.demel.com/en

In the middle of the Naschmarkt, there’s a little chocolate shop that gives us a fuzzy feeling all over when thinking about it. As you walk in, the walls are lined with chocolate, everywhere you look. And while most come here to buy the famous Austrian chocolate, ZOTTER, there’s a small cafe part where you can sit down for a superbly sweet cup of hot chocolate. The experience of drinking the hot chocolate is a large part of why this place has made it onto this list. Rather than being served a ready-made cup, you get to choose what kind of chocolate you’d like to melt in your cup of hot foamy milk, and then whisk it up in there yourself. The trick is to let the chocolate melt in the milk for at least one minute, and then start your sipping.

Some hail this as THE best place in Vienna for a breakfast. We don’t know about that, but we confirm that the breakfast and the hot chocolate here are something special. Whisked together by the good looking bar staff at the Guesthouse bar, the hot chocolate is freshly made and served to you in the homey setting, which blends classic Vienna with clean-cut modernity. The sweet hot chocolate is rich and filling. You can pick between the sweet milk chocolate, or a bitter chocolate variety, and the hotel prides itself on using a real bar of 60g of chocolate, instead of the powdered stuff.

Cafe Schwarzenberg is one of those famous Viennese coffeehouses that has never lost its charm. Even though it’s located in prime tourist territory, the waiters still know how to charm their guests, and the old classy ambience is still intact. They also make a mighty fine hot chocolate. They actually have a range of them – a plain one with whipped cream squirted on top, a ‘Alt-Wiener art’ one which is powdered with cinnamon and sweetened with vanilla, and a few others with orange liquor, or Ameretto thrown in. And we gleefully (with a big hot chocolate milk smile) recommend all of them. All of them pack the bitter punch and don’t cross that line between sickly sweet and sweet. And they are all elegantly served on a tray, with water, in a fancy cup – true coffeehouse style.