The boyfriend and I recently spent about 9 days on holiday in Tasmania, which we enjoyed immensely. I spent much of my time eating enormous amounts of lovely fattening things, which I’ll outline in the next few entries. But firstly, my Tasmania hot chocolate experience. I drank a lot of hot chocolate in Tasmania, because the chilly weather was perfect for such a deliciously warm treat. And I adore hot chocolate.

I will diverge here for a moment, and mention a very memorable hot chocolate that I had in the cafe at Merricks General Store in Victoria. It was described French-style, as chocolate chaud, and as you can see, arrived in a bowl, complete with spoons, a dish of marshmallow, and a dish of dark chocolate shavings which I have already stirred into the drink at the point of this photo.

It was divine – mostly dark chocolate and cream, melted and whipped together. I couldn’t bear to use any of the marshmallows as I thought their sticky sweetness would spoil the rich lusciousness of the drink. That was one of my most memorable hot chocolate experiences.

The hot chocolate pictured at the beginning of this post (and I did put the marshmallows in this one!) was a sweet milky concoction I had at a cafe called Jam Packed in Hobart. It wasn’t a stand-out hot chocolate, but it hit the spot after a chilly morning wandering the Salamanca Markets.

I had another wonderful hot chocolate experience in Bellerive, home of the Bellerive Oval. We explored the gun battery at Kangaroo Point, and then went to Jean Pascal Patisserie on the main street of Bellerive for breakfast. I had a hot chocolate, accompanied by an utterly divine chocolate croissant, while Prince Valiant had a pot of tea and a sausage danish. It was a wonderful experience, mostly because of the cosy atmosphere of the place, and the sound of someone bellowing in French in the kitchen. They had a wonderful selection of bread there, including a jalapeno and cheddar loaf which looked very tempting, but we were eating out a lot so I resisted buying any. If I’m in the area again, I’ll definitely be returning there for another pastry.