I hate coffee, I don’t even like the smell of it.  I love tea but it’s not quite the same having Soya Milk rather than Cows Milk and even when I could drink cow juice, I still got sick of tea.  What I’ve always been a fan of is cocoa or hot chocolate.  I love chocolate, I like to eat it, drink it, wallow in it.

This weekend I was giving a Jack The Ripper tour in the increasingly trendy Whitechapel and 4 four lovely tourists from Philadelphia and California were looking at somewhere to get a coffee.   It gave me the opportunity to check out one of the two incredible Dark Sugar cafe’s in Brick Lane.

Come to Papa!

The aroma was bursting out of the doorway from the other side of the road and my tourists immediately dropped all plans for a coffee and entered into my world of Hot Chocolate heaven and an extremely decadent place it is too.

Dark Sugars was founded by Nyanga following three years of researching cocoa on her family’s farm in Ghana which gives an idea of just how committed she is to her customer experience. In 2015, Dark Sugars: The Cocoa House opened, offering rich hot chocolates and an immersive experience where cocoa beans are roasted on-site.

Ding-Dong!

And there are so many cocoa beans and chocolates on display, over 70. I just took a big sigh whilst writing this; wow over 70 varieties of freshly roasted chocolate and all out on display and ready for purchase and more than a few free samples.  I accidentally nibbled on a variety that contained alcohol.  Oops!

Just enough room under the table for me to sleep here unnoticed overnight

The board above the counter listed a number of different flavours of hot chocolate such as ginger, nutmeg, salted caramel, and cardamom. Whichever you opt for, you can be assured of something special and they are all prepared before your eyes, some with  spices added to the light milky hot chocolate and then they cut up the huge slabs of chocolate (white, milk, or dark) on the counter into thin shards to make the decadent topping.

I of course enjoyed a Soya Hot Chocolate and it was a sight to behold.  This blog post would certainly take less time to write if I didn’t keep pausing, muttering to myself and thinking back to that funky restaurant with its incredible sights, aroma and incredible African music.

It’s like the chocolate Beatles!

Best of all for most people reading this, Dark Sugars even do international orders at least on the chocolate.  I’m not sure about the hot chocolates but that is mainly because I have set up a blockade outside the front door to ensure none of these beauties leaves London.

One for the road… a drink is readied for one of my lovely tourists.

So the long and the short of it is the hot chocolate here is the best I have ever had and I really need everyone to book as many Jack The Ripper tours as possible as I really need to get back to Dark Sugars which isn’t just the best hot chocolate in London but the best in the world or at least in my world which covers from Ireland to the Middle-East and along to Africa.

For the love of God, my Hot Chocolate.  Do you eat it or drink it?

As you can see, they cup a number of blocks of chocolate and then place them in your cocoa.  You can then have the fun of eating this sweet beautiful creation; having chunky flakes of cold chocolate dripping in hot chocolate is just what life should be all about.    After a few minutes however, what you don’t get to eat melts into the hot choclate drink leaving you an even thicker and more luxurious hot chocolate drink than you’d ever thought possible.

Whilst I got and take a cold shower, you might like to see this little video of some of the best hot chocolates in London with Dark Sugar coming in around the 1 minute mark.