Hot Chocolate at Kopenhagen, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I spent a bit of time searching online for hot chocolates in Rio before I set foot there. In many of my searches and conversations with locals, Kopenhagen came up. Kopenhagen is a chain or chocolate chops across Brazil (in 60 different cities in fact). They have been around for 80 years and even though their name isn’t very Brazilian (at all), the chocolates are.

We found one of their stores near Ipanema beach and went in for a hot chocolate. There was no sign really explaining what options they had so I said in my best Portuguese “un chocolate quente”. The woman looked at me, nodded and proceeded to push a bunch of buttons and move around a bunch of pots on a coffee machine behind the counter. She took a bit of liquid chocolate from a clear glass container and put it in a cup. My eyes started to wonder along the display case filled with chocolates of every kind and colour. This was going to be good.

We sat down on one of the two tables in the store. The hot chocolate was presented beautifully in a little white cup with a pastry stick dipped in rich milk chocolate on the side. It also comes with a little shot of sparkling water.

I take my first sip. You other hot chocolate lovers will understand me when I say my heart sank. I hate that feeling when you are expecting something really good and then try it and it’s really not that great at all. The chocolate was watery and didn’t taste like much.

As I tried to hide my disappointment and understand what happened I heard a woman go up to the cash and ask for a hot chocolate. The woman then proceeded to tell her that they had three different kinds of hot chocolate. Three? I was only presented with one? So I am guessing that those other two are exceptional and me, the poor tourist got the watery one? Who knows but still today locals keep telling me that Kopenhagen has the best hot chocolate in town.

Verdict: Next time I’m back in Rio I will try this again and do my research or bring a local with me so that I get the good hot chocolate and not the watered down version that I was presented. So sad. But those pastry sticks were incredible. I could eat a whole box. www.kopenhagen.com.br