12 Days of Hot Chocolate: Shake Shack

Editor's note: Every weekday until Christmas, we'll have a daily hot chocolate report for you. 'Tis the season. Today, the Shake Shack.

Price: $4 for a nine-ounce cup

The Deal: This remains one of my favorites throughout the hot chocolate marathon. Thick, but not a goopy choking threat. Chocolatey, but not bitter. And not ridiculously expensive. Executive chef Michael Romano of Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group helped conceive the recipe, which combines 66% and 72% chocolate with whole milk, heavy cream, a homemade marshmallow cube—which quickly disappears—and homemade marshmallow fluff on top, which only eventually disappears, a few sips in. If you're toughing the brass monkey weather in line, how could you not reward yourself with one? And apparently, if you initiate a snowball fight in Madison Square Park, Shake Shack might just cater you cups of it for free.

Shake Shack

Madison Square Park, E 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, New York NY 10010 (map) 212-889-6600

Upper West Side, 366 Columbus Avenue, New York NY 10024 (b/n 77th and 78th Street; map) 646-747-8770
shakeshacknyc.com

Previously
12 Days of Hot Chocolate: City Bakery
12 Days of Hot Chocolate: Vosges Haut Chocolat
12 Days of Hot Chocolate: One Girl Cookies
12 Days of Hot Chocolate: The Dessert Truck

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