First, let's acknowledge something great. Both of these shops are on E Pearson Street, which is clearly named after me. My birthday, I also recently discovered, is National Chocolate Day. Obviously, chocolate and I are made for each other.
The Battle began in late December, when our dear friends, Josh and Mallory, visited Chicago with Josh's band students. Fortunately, they were released from their chaperoning duties for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, and we met up with them for an afternoon of shopping and drinks on the Mag Mile (and a late lunch at Fountainhead the next day, after which we traveled back to Houston with them for the holidays!)
Michel's side note: Have no illusions, all of these drinks were Elizabeth's.
Elizabeth's rebuttal: Noooooooo! Not true.
Michel: *wink*
Good food, good friends!
But first, we decided we needed hot chocolate. Josh and Mallory voted for the Hershey shop, so in we went.
Hershey was founded in 1894 by Milton S. Hershey, after he sold his Lancaster Caramel Company upon seeing a chocolate making machine for the first time. As Mr. Hershey supposedly said, "Caramels are just a fad, but chocolate is a permanent thing." One of the oldest chocolate companies in the country, Hershey is a member of the World Cocoa Federation, and its products are sold in over 60 countries today. The Hershey Companies include not just the chocolate factory but also Hersheypark, the Hershey Bears minor league hockey team and the Giant Center where they play, and Hersheypark Stadium.
Inside the Chicago Hershey store, the decor was decidedly, though festively, commercial, focused on merchandising as much as the chocolate itself. Even the "chocolate silo" was a money-making venture for the store.
However, you can't go wrong with Hershey. One of the most famous chocolate brands in the country, if not the world, Hershey is a familiar, comforting reminder of our childhoods. On Halloween, it was always exciting to find either a small Hershey bar or a Hershey's Special Dark bite-size chocolate piece in the candy pumpkin. And Hershey did not disappoint. We received cups of delicious, frothy, actually hot hot chocolate, rich and velvety with flavor. Michel got the coconut hot chocolate, which he loved (Michel: it was like drinking an Almond Joy) but I know was actually disgusting as I hate coconut. The freshly made cookies and brownies looked absolutely decadent, and it was hard not to go back for an additional treat. My food dislikes aside, we were all very happy with our choice for the day.
Michel: It was neat, but it was no Hershey's Chocolate World.
Hershey had thrown down the gauntlet, and it looked like Ghirardelli had a long way to go to win.
It wasn't until Michel's sister and brother-in-law, Diana and Ron, came to visit over MLK weekend that we had a chance to complete the Battle of the Chocolate Shops: Hot Chocolate Edition. Fortunately Diana loves chocolate about as much as I do and was eager to taste test. After a busy day seeing the downtown sights, we ended our trek across the street from Hershey at the Ghirardelli shop.
The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was incorporated in 1852 by Domenico Ghirardelli, an Italian chocolate maker who spent time in Uruguay and Peru before coming to California for the Gold Rush. It is the second oldest chocolate maker in the country, after Baker's Chocolate, and is currently a subsidiary of Swiss confectioner Lindt and Sprüngli. Ghirardelli is one of the few chocolate companies in the country that controls every aspect of production, including rejecting up to 40% of cacao seeds intended for use to ensure the highest quality chocolate possible. Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, location of many of the original Ghirardelli Company buildings, is now an official city landmark and a wonderland of delicious, delicious chocolate.
Entering the Chicago store, it is very similar to the original Ghirardelli shop in San Francisco: an old-fashioned candy shop vibe with warm wood trim, vibrantly colored chocolate packaging, and a charming little seating area. It also has a bit of a commercial feel with all of the various Ghirardelli products lining the walls and tables, but that feel is mitigated a bit by the ability to order an ice cream sundae at a vintage ice cream counter and eat it at real tables and chairs.
When we entered the store, we were the only people there. However, sensing our presence, people started flooding in shortly after us, desperate to get their sweet treats where the arbiters of taste (us) had decided to do the same. As a result, the charming little seating area quickly became much less charming and much more crowded. However, it was absolutely worth it for the hot chocolate that soon appeared.
Michel and Diana both ordered the salty caramel hot chocolate, easily one of the creamiest, chocolatiest, most delicious hot chocolates any of us had ever had. Ron and I both ordered the Decadent Drinking Chocolate, hot chocolate made entirely of melted dark chocolate chips and reminiscent of the hot chocolate of Chocolateria San Gines in Madrid, where the chocolate is so thick, you can stand your churro up in in it. Inspired, I tried to stand my spoon up in my hot chocolate. It worked.
Michel: It took four hours and eighteen yards of fishing line to get this picture.
It didn't hurt that they gave each of us a free dark chocolate caramel upon entering the store and a free sea salt caramel along with the salty caramel hot chocolates. But the flavors and quality of the chocolate were just so intense and so far above anything else we'd tried that it's now hard to even consider any other option for our hot chocolate needs.
Winner of the Battle of the Chocolate Shops Hot Chocolate Edition: Ghirardelli, hands down.
Michel: A note to Hershey: We will gladly change the result of this competition in exchange for free chocolate.
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