All About the Over the Top Hot Chocolate Trend

While most people are familiar with luxurious hot chocolate, fewer may be familiar with the newer trend of Over the Top Chocolate (OTT Chocolate). It’s a bit like the Bloody Marys that have a veritable forest on top, toothpicks covered in cheese, peppers, and meats. But for the hot chocolate, or chocolate milkshakes, it’s got a cloud of cookies, marshmallows and other sweet treats balanced on top.

JoJo's shake bar SC, DC, and Classic Hot Chocolate

Milkshakes to Hot Chocolate

Now in their second year, Jojo’s ShakeBAR is releasing six different Over the Top Chocolate Milkshakes tied to holidays until mid-April. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, they released the Lucky Charms Milkshake, which was “topped with marshmallow fluff, a chocolate marshmallow with a green drizzle, a clover s’more, and a chocolate dipped pretzel with gold sprinkles.” For Easter in April, they’ve got the “The Peep Show Milkshake” that will be “topped with cotton candy, a bunny peep, and a candy s’more.”

According to Madi Vandevelde, Public Relations and Marketing Specialist for JoJo, explained that the over-the-top hot milkshake was a natural progression for them. Jojo’s is known for their shakes but currently, all their locations are in Chicago where brutal winters seem to last for nine months. Taking the concept of the over-the-top shake and applying it to hot chocolate “was a no-brainer for us,” Vandevelde explained. This is the second year they’ve introduced these over-the-top chocolate but tweaked the recipe a little bit.

She cites the example of the Bloody Mary. “I think it's just taking that classic and just really trying to outdo each other. What's the next thing we can put on top of it?” She acknowledges that social media plays a role as people like to post their photos.

But hot chocolate has a special place in people’s hearts. Vandevelde said, “Everyone grew up loving hot chocolate on a cold day. It's basically just elevating that entire drink that brings you back to your childhood. I think it's fun and whimsical.”

Dominique Ansel Blossoming Hot Chocolate

Artisanal Hot Chocolate

Some establishments have created simpler but more luxurious hot chocolate. While Dominique Ansel and Dominique Ansel Bakery may be best known for creating the cronut, Chef Dominique Ansel has created the Blossoming Hot Chocolate. He got the idea from a Tokyo museum exhibit about movement: “it made me think how something inanimate could suddenly become alive and how that could be applied to food and drink.”

It took some time to get the recipe right so the marshmallow flower blossoms just right. He had to factor in the hot chocolate temperature, the marshmallow’s thickness, the weight of the ingredients. That also included figuring out how to account for “the thinness of the white chocolate cup the marshmallow is set in, and the type of cup it's served in.” But once he got it out, the result was something really beautiful.

He first introduced it in his stores in Tokyo in 2016 but now it’s popular in the bakery’s Soho shop in New York. He notes that the flowers differ depending on location. In the bakery’s Hong Kong shops, they have a “double-layer chrysanthemum, a nod to the classic chrysanthemum tea.” They also use Valrhona brand chocolate.

While he does not consider it part of the over-the-top hot chocolate trend, it’s definitely a new way to think about hot chocolate with the occasional marshmallow.

JoJo's shake bar over the top hot chocolate

Making Your Own Over the Top Drink

Chef Gabrielle Draper, Associate Manager of R&D Technical Culinary Applications at Barry Callebaut USA, said that she thinks the trend came out of “freak shakes” or OTT shakes. Wherever it came from, people can have a lot of fun making their own. Chef Draper said, “Personally in the past what I've loved to play around with hot chocolate is like different flavors and the base itself” but you can easily add some ingredients on top.

One recommendation was an Apple Cider Hot Chocolate. In the recipe, she “used apple cider as part of the liquid to heat up and then I used white chocolate and some spices.” She suggested whipped cream, ginger cookies, and maybe a bit of caramel sauce. Then, add some white chocolate-coated pretzels or crushed pretzels or a Stroopwafel.

Another idea from Chef Draper is to take milk chocolate, melt salted caramel or caramel-filled chocolate bar it in the milk. Then you can add some vanilla ice cream or caramel ice cream. You can then add some sea salt truffles on top along with whipped cream. You can also add milk chocolate sea salt bark, caramel sauce or caramel cookies to the mix. There are so many options.

She also recommended playing with salt and sweet tastings like adding potato chips, pretzels or even adding a scoop of peanut butter (or other nut butters.) Ultimately, Chef Draper suggested that no matter what type of chocolate you use as a base to make sure to include some cocoa powder to help with the mouth feel.

Recipe from Chef Gabrielle Draper: