The 15th Annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival Has 180 Flavours of Hot Chocolate
Vancouver's favourite way to warm up in the winter is to sip a mug of hot chocolate at the Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival. It's back for its 15th anniversary with 180 flavours across 124 locations.
All About the Vancouver Chocolate Festival
The 2025 festival runs from January 18 to February 14. You can grab specialty hot chocolates from participating cafes, chocolatiers, ice cream shops, bakeries, and other businesses in Vancouver and in neighbouring cities like North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, and Coquitlam. The festival has a handy virtual map to find a spot near you. Their vendor directory also lets you sort by location as well as locations that have options for vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free diets. You can also find vendors that are open late.
There's also a great contest: Once you've got your hot chocolate in hand, snap a pic and post it to Instagram to win gift certificates from participating vendors.
The Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival also donates partial proceeds to Fresh Families and Growing Chefs. Both of these charitable partners help children and families gain access to healthy food.
Hot Chocolates by Neighbourhood
With 180 different flavours of hot chocolate to sample, you probably won't be able to taste them all. Design your own hot chocolate crawl as you explore neighbourhoods around Vancouver.
Kitsilano
This year Beaucoup Bakery's hot chocolate offerings have an adorable Peanuts theme. Their peanut butter hot chocolate pays homage to Charlie Brown. The Beagle's Bon Fire drink embraces Snoopy's adventurous side with toasty and smokey campfire vibes. Both come with accompanying on-theme cookies: One is Snoopy shaped and the other has an adorable Charlie Brown-esque zigzag motif.
To try your next hot chocolate, walk west along the Arbutus Greenway to 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters. You can choose between their Golden Cocoa, made with turmeric, cardamom, and cinnamon, or their Caramel Grey Dream, which has hints of Earl Grey tea and caramel. They each come with mini doughnuts from their in-house bakery, Lucky's Doughnuts.
Finish your Kitsilano hot chocolate tour at Viva Cafe, which has two off-beat chocolate offerings. Tropiclikeitshot mixes chocolate ganache with mango and passionfruit. Or enjoy spicy Chinese flavours with the 5spice Girls hot chocolate. Get your drink to go and sip it while you soak up the view at Kitsilano Beach.
Downtown Vancouver
Honolulu Coffee serves up coffee made from beans grown on Hawaii's Big Island at their cafes on Nelson Street in Downtown Vancouver along with others in Kerrisdale, and False Creek. They have created two hot chocolate flavours for this year's festival. Kim's Berry combines dark chocolate and oak milk with strawberries and gochujang for a hit of spice with your sweetness. If you want tropical vibes, try Flora's Glow, made with dark chocolate, oat milk, guava, and orange zest. Both drinks come with a vegan cookie.
Next, head to Elysian Coffee Roasters a few blocks away on Burrard to try their citrusy Zest of Life hot chocolate. It's made with white chocolate and yuzu and comes with house-made meringues. They also have a cherry hot chocolate.
Wander down Burrard to Fauborg Paris to sample their decadent Custard Flan vegan hot chocolate. It's served with a mixed berry almond cake. Take it to go and head across the street to watch the skaters at the Robson Square Ice Rink, open for outdoor ice skating until the end of February.
Main Street
Start your Main Street hot chocolate crawl at The Federal Store. This funky neighbourhood store and cafe has three hot chocolates on offer this year: the peanutty Squirrel Friend, pistachio-forward Green Fairy, and rhubarb-flavoured The Barbara, an ode to the owner's grandma.
Browse the boutiques along Main Street as you walk south to Trafiq Cafe, which has four hot chocolate flavours to choose from: Candy Apple Charm, Ube Cinnamon Indulgence, Wintry Mint Mocha, and Black Forest Frost. Each one comes with a cookie from their in-house bakery.
Take a stroll with your hot chocolate to Queen Elizabeth Park to admire the city views from outside the Bloedel Conservatory.