You know, I am not much of a chocolate person, but I do like the occasional hot chocolate and lately, I've become strangely addicted to the Aztec Elixir Couture Cocoa "drinking chocolate" from Vosges. I only really think of hot chocolate at this time of the year when the chill in the air gets into my bones.

So when a friend wrote about a new place, Cacao 70, located not too far from me, I felt like this could be the kind of place to allure me to the dark side of sweet. The pictures of the melted in chocolate in a snifter really drew me in, though I wasn't as impressed with the store bought marshmallows. Marshmallows are just so naturally matched with hot cocoa and so easy to make that I would have a hard time forgiving such a transgression!

This afternoon, after my appointment with my hairdresser (Stephanie at Mat&Max) I decided today was the day to stop by. It's cold outside, I looked fabulous, and heck, I was in the mood! It took me less than 15 minutes to walk from Place Montreal Trust to Cacao 70, located right across the street from College LaSalle.

When I first walked in, the waitress asked me to choose my seating and within moments I had a sample of their American style Cacao base, along with a large bottle of filtered water. Nice. I liked the base, though, for me, that was a bit too sweet.

I didn't really look at the food menu much, I was there specifically for a hot chocolate, one from their world wide cacao collection. I prefer dark chocolate, 70% or more, and I like it to have a little kick to it. After some discussion with my waitress I went with the 70% Fleur de Cao: spicy flavor which lends a particular character to both sweet and salty.

It took a few minutes, but the chef brought out a beautiful plate, with my melted chocolate in their signature snifter, rimmed with dark chocolate, along with the hot base, which you mix into the chocolate to obtain your preferred texture. I liked mine a little more thick, and used only about 1/2 the base, mixing in a little at a time.

It felt very decadent. Heck, it was very decadent! I was drinking melted chocolate! I was drinking a hot chocolate that costs a little over 10$. And I was actually really enjoying it. I was enjoying the entire experience.

I will definitely go back again. For me, this is date night material, girls night out material, even breakfast (alas, they are not open for breakfast ) In fact, I plan to make a date night of it before October 31st, when the very secret "promotion" ends. The promotion is that if you "like" or "friend" Cacoa 70 on Facebook or Twitter, you can call them for a seat at one of their hourly "tasting menus" - for free!

Before I left, I had to ask about the whole marshmallow thing, I just couldn't let that dog lie, and happily, the owner informed me that they are in the process of choosing a suitable marshmallow recipe for the store, and plan to have homemade marshmallows in the coming weeks! Whoopie!

Cacao 70
2087 Sainte-Catherine St W
(514) 933-1688