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Best Hot Chocolate in Sacramento and in the USA can be found at Ginger Elizabeth. Yelp voted Ginger Elizabeth as the best in the USA2 and Northern California has the top two places!
Location
Ginger Elizabeth’s Chocolate Shop Flagship can be found at 2413 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816. It shares the space with a few other shops, notably Ro Sham Beaux is inside the building. Also, Rick’s Dessert Diner and Babes Ice Cream & Donuts are neighbors, making J Street a great place to get desserts.
Fun fact: Ginger Elizabeth moved to J Street in 2023
Parking
Street parking is available but can be tricky sometimes. Parking can be found on both sides of J Street, but I recommend the spots on the right side of the road. Additional parking spaces can be found 24th or 25th Street.
Ambiance
Clean store. The design is contemporary floral modern / farm house. Great after dinner date place to get a nice sweet treat, or even wine at Ro Sham Beaux 🍷.
Menu
What else does Ginger Elizabeth have on the menu?
- Chocolates
- Macarons
- Ice Cream Sandwich
- Hot Chocolate
- Cookies
Background
What makes good chocolate?
All chocolate (e.g., baking or eating 🍫) contains much of the same ingredients such as cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar, and potentially other additives3. However, Couverture chocolate (pronounced ku-va-ture) contains a higher percentage of cocoa butter than typical baking or eating chocolate. Cocoa butter is a vegan edible fat extracted from the cocoa bean. The higher amount of cocoa butter gives it a creamy and mellow flavor.
Review
When you try Ginger Elizabeth’s hot chocolate you will immediately understand why its the best. You may have had grocery store hot chocolate packets but this is in a totally league of its own.
Ginger Elizabeth’s hot chocolate is creamy, smooth, and rich. It’s not something to gulp down but to enjoy sip by sip. The hot chocolate’s richness feels like your enjoying chocolate but in smooth liquid. The couverture chocolate is mixed in with the organic milk or can be substituted with almond or oat milk (I recommend oat milk).
Additionally, they can add homemade marshmallows. Again, you may have tried grocery store marshmallows. These have so much more dimension to the flavor. The marshmallows are soft that complement the sweetness of the chocolate with a hint of vanilla. Finally, they can top it off with homemade whip cream.
Classic American Hot Chocolate
The Classic American contains 53% semi-sweet (couverture) chocolate. This is an excellent place to start as you can experience the creamy chocolate flavor before trying variations.
Oaxacan Spice Hot Chocolate
The Oaxacan Spice is made from the same 53% semi-sweet (couverture) chocolate but also includes cinnamon, chilies, vanilla beans, and ginger. I was a bit worried that the Oaxacan Spice Hot Chocolate was going to be to spicy and exotic in taste. It was actually mild and tasty with a subtle kick.
Early Grey Hot Chocolate (Seasonal)
Earl Grey Hot Chocolate was wonderful. If you are a fan of Earl Grey tea I recommend this one. It has a nice creamy chocolate taste with a subtle Earl Grey taste finishing. However, I don’t know when it will be back!
Rose Petal Hot Chocolate
Rose Petal Hot Chocolate has the chocolate base as the Classic American but includes hand-candied rose petals. If you like sweeter hot chocolate and rose flavor then you’ll like this one. I thought it was the sweetest of the ones I tried.
Final Verdict
Why does Ginger Elizabeth have the best hot chocolate? Because of the homemade marshmallows that melt in the buttery French couverture chocolate, and the homemade whip cream. All together you have a rich authentic hot chocolate like no where else. Ginger Elizabeth indeed makes the best hot chocolate in Sacramento and will be a winter time staple. My favorite was the Classic Hot Chocolate and Earl Grey flavors.
Will Re-visit: Yes ✅
Pro-tip: Ginger Elizabeth macrons and chocolates make excellent gifts.
Take home experience: All the ingredients are made locally or sourced locally in Northern California4. If you enjoyed the chocolate you can recreate the experience at home with a classic hot chocolate tin (53% semisweet couverture chocolate)5 and vanilla bean marshmallows6.
Hot Chocolate with Rose Petals has a sweeter taste, better for sipping and those who like rose flavor:
