It’s A Beautiful Drink

“Chocolate in general appeals on the basis of color and sugar intensity,” explains Davenport, a third-generation chocolatier and president of Dilettante Chocolates. “We want to provide choices.”

Guests can select hot chocolate made from molten chocolate, chocolate truffles mixed with cream or from cocoa. Options exist within each category.

Molten chocolate drinks come in white, milk and dark chocolate varieties. “And once people get used to the choices, they start mixing and matching,” says Davenport. “They’ll ask for two pumps of milk chocolate, one pump of dark chocolate.”

A 3 1/2-ounce Cioccobreve, made with molten chocolate and half-and-half “goes down like silk.”

“It’s a beautiful drink,” boasts Davenport, who is equally proud of his Ciocco Grande, a drink that allows diners to add the molten chocolate of their choice to steaming mugs of milk.

“That’s for people who want to make an extended occasion out of their hot chocolate,” he explains.

Children don’t dawdle over chocolate. But grown-ups, increasingly, are doing just that.