Our hot chocolates are served, made with Hotel Chocolat´s “100% dark”, no syrups, no powder, just chocolate.
Text & Photo © K. Aprilia, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019
This would be my second visit to Tokyo, Japan, but it´s a first experience walking into Hotel Chocolat for a warm cup of hot chocolate and a delicious browse of their products.
As a city that never seems to sleep and neon night lights lining every street and corner, the initial impression of Tokyo can be overwhelming. And so it was, as overwhelming to the senses, when walking around a mall in Narita. Being holiday season, eye catching Christmas trees and tinsel decorations competed for your attention with rose hued Hello Kitty themed restrooms that you just had to visit, even if you didn´t have to go.
After about an hour or so of absorbing the sights and sounds of a new place, new products and services, trying to take in as much information as possible because you never know when you might come back, if ever, we thought it was time for a warm cup of coffee / tea. It was then that we found Hotel Chocolat nestled in a row of shops at AEON mall in Narita, Tokyo. It was most likely the dark coloured interiors that signalled 100% chocolate that drew our attention. Can´t go much wrong with chocolate, dark grey, black and purple interiors.
The Hotel Chocolat find was surreal because I had intended to visit crazier themed cafés/restaurants such as the Alice in Fantasy Book Restaurant, Eorzea Café and the Vampire Café – you know, all themes that you secretly conceive of in your own mind, but when others have actually built it and put it into existence, then your own fantasies pale in comparison and it doesn´t make you feel so much in need of psychiatric help.
Hotel Chocolat felt disappointingly normal. But normal turned into luxurious almost immediately after we sat ourselves at a table. Browsing through the menu, we discovered that British founded and owned Hotel Chocolat offered premium chocolate and cocoa-related products from the Rabot Estate in the town of Soufrière located along the west coast of Saint Lucia in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Très exotique.
Everything looks inviting at Hotel Chocolat, especially if you´re a chocolate addict, which, we are. Our orders for the evening were the 100% dark hot chocolate. The hot chocolate served was velvet smooth, and we´re in absolute agreement with the official description of the Saint Lucian beans in this conconction that “give the oaky aroma of a just-opened bottle of Shiraz, with lush, creamy undertones and a peppery finish. A deep, malty experience with a complex aftertaste.”
Hotel Chocolat was the perfect café find of the evening. The warm cups of hot chocolate were good. They were perfect.
Dream come true! A festive wreath concocted in chocolate is luxe festivous for the senses.
With Karina Aprilia at Hotel Chocolat, AEON Narita, Tokyo, Japan 2019.
Holiday Season Greetings!