I’m sure this is the most exciting news to drop since the invention of cubic watermelons: my Atlanta Hot Chocolate Review Instagram is now active! And I think it’s important for me to give some context on the account, how its rating system works, and why.
You could say I’m a fan of hot chocolate. A casual enjoyer. There’s something about the drink that riles me up– sure, it has no caffeine, but it’s a guaranteed pick-me-up that energizes me with each and every sip.
I’ve slowly been weaning off of coffee and have replaced it with chai. Unfortunately, cafes (which are excellently convenient places to catch up with friends) are impressively terrible at chai, and I’ve been told that it’s poor social form to sit in a cafe without purchasing anything. My personal solution to this game of avoiding coffee has been to just get a hot chocolate. And now, over the past two years, I’ve probably been to twenty or thirty cafes across DC and Atlanta and sampled their hot chocolate.
When you’ve been to more than like… one cafe, you quickly realize the inconsistencies in the cafe experience. Even in a drink as seemingly simple as hot chocolate, so many variables can impact your consumption. Putting aside the actual taste for a second, there’s the atmosphere and ambiance in the cafe. There’s the dietary restrictions the cafe supports. The location. So many little things that build up your time in the cafe before you even order.
Now, accounts that review cafes are a dime a dozen. People look up reviews for cafes and restaraunts on Yelp or Beli or Google Maps’ reviews or what-have-you. And take one quick look at Instagram and you’ll see people posting pictures of their matcha lattes and boba tea with little captions that hint at their enjoyment (or lack thereof). Everyone is an influencer, even if they don’t acknowledge it. The posts they make are subtle reviews of restaurants and cafes they’ve visited– you probably wouldn’t post something unless it was at least passably good or remarkably bad.
But this isn’t an essay about how the age of digital media turns our Internet presence into performance art. This is my origin story as a food influencer.
I’ve joked about becoming a food influencer in the past. I use influencer as a loose title– I would have just posted every Freezoni I got from QuikTrip. See, there was a point in my life when I would have a Freezoni almost every day, and I’d mix and match the flavors each time based on my mood and whether or not they were available at my QT that night. I’m certain I’ll write a massive post about my thoughts on QuikTrip some day, so you can look forward to that in the future.
But I never got started, probably because that would have just been a high effort diary, and realistically, my Freezonis were too dependent on the status of the Freezoni taps to be consistently replicable. Besides, I think it would have been treated like a meme account.
Hot chocolate, on the other hand, is a passion more widely appreciated and understood. Who doesn’t like hot chocolate? And who is out there reviewing hot chocolate establishments??
This is an untapped market. If I wanted to know where the best hot chocolate in Atlanta is, there is no one definitive source. Now, I have not looked this up before, so please don’t fact check me on this. I’m too far in to acknowledge the existence of any other resource.
But that’s why I created this Instagram. Two reasons: one, I’m fulfilling my food influencer destiny; and two, I’m creating a resource for other Atlanta-based hot chocolate lovers to know What’s Where.
Criteria
I didn’t want my ratings to be purely vibe based. I can’t be spewing opinion, after all. These reviews must be rooted in reality, in some kind of objective system of ranking. I have no authority as a food critic yet, and there’s not really a reason for anyone to trust me if I don’t have a robust ‘objective’ system. As such, I thought long and hard on the criteria I wanted to rate cafes by, and I’ve settled on a quaint little system that scores each cafe across six categories.
I’m describing them and the logic behind them below in the order they show up on my Instagram graphic. The order (and their names) was decided based mostly on visual balance.
Cost
The first category in my list is cost. It’s 2026, and the cost of coffee is crazy. A real first-world problem to have, but we’re at the point where cafes with regularly charge 7+ dollars for a drink. Of you have dietary restrictions and need a substitution, well, joke’s on you because you’re paying more. And they get away with it because they know they have an audience in twenty-something-year-olds itching to work in the ambiance of a plant-filled, sunny cafe.
Hot chocolate is usually cheaper than coffee (in most self-respecting places), but cost is still an important factor to consider. If you’re an average student planning on going to a cafe to get work done, you’re usually balancing the cost of your drink with how long you expect to stay there.
This is the most straightforward category out of all of them. The cheaper you are, the better you are! This is of course, balanced with how good the hot chocolate actually is, which feeds into my second category.
Flavor
Probably the most important category to rate, if I had to choose one. I’m not a food writer, and am still building up my food-writing-muscle, but the actual taste is important. Some criteria for me is the richness of the drink; whether it is creamy or liquidy; whether it contains cocoa powder or chocolate syrup or melted chocolate; if there are subtle notes of fruit or spice in the mix. Does it taste like powder mixed in water? Do they make it with milk? Is it hot enough to be hot chocolate or is it just warm?
Plating
Hopefully, they’ve also presented it to you well. Plating is the category name not just because it fit better on my Instagram graphic than “Presentation,” but because I found it funny to borrow a word from the realm of chef critiques. This boils down to a few factors.
How are the cups? What are the sizing options like? If you’re getting it to go, are the cups a recyclable material? What about compostable? And if you’re drinking it in the restaurant, how is it plated? Did they do anything fun or funky with the pour? Is there latte art? What are the cups like? Do they match the aesthetic of the restaurant?
Addons
This is another category name chosen for its size. I really mean to say customizability. Do they give you options for milk? if you were really desperate could you get an oat milk hot chocolate from them? Are there novelty or seasonal versions of hot chocolate at the cafe? Is there an option between dark/milk chocolate? Are there syrups you can add? What about spices? What about whipped cream?
Location
How is the cafe itself? Is it located in an easy to find location? If it’s tucked out of the way, is there enough signage to find it? Is there parking available, or is it a quick walk from public transit? Is the building wheelchair accessible? What are the restrooms like? How is the rest of the menu? Is it expansive? I’m not going to sample more items from the cafe, but if I wanted to, could I get snacks/a meal there? Is there free WiFi? Power outlets? An abundance of questions.
Vibes
This is the only subjective category here. Do I personally enjoy this location and its decor? Do I enjoy my time there? Are they playing music I like? Is it too loud or is it just right?
tl;dr
Basically, I rate each joint on cost, flavor, presentation, customizability, location, and vibes. In a mostly objective fashion. Don’t think too hard on that one. It’ll probably be sporadic posting, but I’m hoping to average 2 a week. I know that hot chocolate demand generally goes down once it’s hot outside, but that’s not going to stop me.
If you’ve gotten this far, please go ahead and give me a follow at @hot.chocolatl (do you see what I did there with that name? Isn’t there a linguistic genius trapped within my brain?). And if you have a favorite hot chocolate spot in Atlanta, send it my way!