The Best Hot Chocolates in Melbourne This Winter 2026

Melbourne winter has a way of sending us towards the nearest cup of something dark, thick and restorative. This year, the city’s hot chocolate scene is doing far more than the usual cocoa-and-milk routine, with gelato-topped Italian pours, campfire theatrics, Colombian hot chocolate with cheese, affogato-style creations and dessert-shop specials built for cold hands and weak resolve.

From cult favourites to new winter drops, these are the best hot chocolates in Melbourne right now.

Good Daze Canteen

Good Daze Canteen’s latest winter creation takes its cue from Spain: a cup of thick, dark hot chocolate served with fresh house-made churros coated in cinnamon sugar. The pairing is gloriously straightforward. Tear off a piece of churro, drag it through the chocolate and accept that the drink is really half dessert, half dipping sauce.

The churros are vegan but contain gluten, while the hot chocolate is gluten-free and contains milk

316 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

L’Arte Della Gelato

At this Fitzroy gelateria, hot chocolate arrives with a little ceremony. Single-origin Belgian chocolate is poured over a hand-shaped ube marshmallow flower, its violet petals softening and unfurling across the glass. The cacao is dark and full-bodied rather than sugary, balanced by the ube’s earthy nuttiness, while a scoop of house-made gelato delivers the required hot-cold contrast. It is beautiful, certainly, but the flavour more than earns the spectacle.

191 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Matilda

Mont Albert North has its own answer to the dense hot chocolates of Paris. Matilda melts 70% couverture chocolate into steamed milk with a trace of hazelnut, then crowns the lot with a soft drift of whipped cream. Thick, dark and deliberately excessive, it sits closer to dessert than an everyday cafe drink.

The sweetest part? Matilda’s leafy Arcade Road setting suits it all magnificently: blue frontage, tables beneath the trees and a cafe shaped by owner Jacinta Price’s years travelling through France.

15 Arcade Road, Mont Albert North

Betterburnt

Betterburnt has turned hot chocolate into a two-course affair. The warm cup arrives with a miniature wedge of dark-chocolate Basque cheesecake, its caramelised top giving way to the molten-soft centre that made this Hawthorn shop’s name. Sip, take a forkful, repeat until both disappear. It is simple rather than tricksy, but the double hit of chocolate and cheesecake is the ultimate way to abandon moderation… at least until spring.

Sitchu Tip: Numbers are limited each day, so arrive early.

817 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

Pidapipó

Pidapipo’s gelato hot chocolate has returned for a third winter, this time with a matcha sibling. The original combines 70 per cent dark chocolate with fior di latte gelato folded through marshmallows, finished with hazelnut croccante for a final nutty crackle.

New for 2026, the matcha edition keeps the classic hot chocolate base but swaps in matcha gelato, matcha whipped cream and a milky matcha crumble. One is dark, rich and nostalgic; the other is greener, creamier and pitched squarely at Melbourne’s enduring matcha fixation.

Both are $10.50 and available for a limited time across all four Pidapipó stores.

Carlton, Windsor, Melbourne CBD and Fitzroy Laboratorio; see website for store addresses

Piccolina

Piccolina Gelateria has stepped into Melbourne’s hot chocolate race with Cioccolata Calda, an Italian-style pour made with 72 per cent Belgian couverture. There are three ways in: Il Classico with whipped cream, the Hot Chocolate Affogato with gelato, or the S’Mores Affogato with fior di latte, toasted pink marshmallow and graham cracker crumble.

It is thick, dark and nicely dramatic without losing the Italian restraint that Piccolina does so well. Available across all Piccolina locations from 15th May until the end of winter, it is built for anyone who likes their cold-weather chocolate with a scoop of gelato and a little theatre in the cup.

All Piccolina locations — (see website for all store addresses)

Mörk Chocolate Brew House

Mörk is still the benchmark for hot chocolate in Melbourne, and for good reason. The North Melbourne brew house treats cacao with the seriousness usually reserved for wine, working with dark chocolate, cacao powder, 100 per cent unsweetened chocolate blocks and organic unrefined coconut blossom sugar to make drinking chocolate with depth, bitterness and backbone.

This winter, the Campfire Hot Chocolate is the one drawing the crowds. Smoky, marshmallow-led and made for the camera without being all surface, it is Mörk at its most playful. Go for that if you want the winter special, or stick with the house drinking chocolate if you like your cocoa dark and a little more grown-up.

150 Errol Street, North Melbourne (plus additional Melbourne locations — see website)

Baker Bleu

Baker Bleu’s winter hot chocolate has taken a citrus turn. Made with Hunted + Gathered’s 60% Dominican Republic dark chocolate, fresh orange and orange blossom whipped cream, it is rich, fragrant and sharpened by enough acidity to stop the sweetness running away with itself.

Sitchu Tip: Exclusive to Cremorne and seasonal, so call ahead before crossing town.

65 Dover Street, Cremorne

Piccolo Panini Bar

Piccolo Panini Bar has taken tiramisu out of the cabinet and poured it into a cup. Espresso and cocoa sit beneath a thick, cool cap of whipped cream, delivering the familiar progression of coffee, chocolate and soft dairy in drinkable form. It is sweeter and more dessert-like than your morning latte, but retains enough espresso bitterness to keep everything in order. Order it hot, then follow with one of the Glenferrie Road bar’s formidable Italian panini.

636 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

Billy Van Creamy

Billy Van Creamy knows dairy, so its winter hot choccy arrives with the same silk and richness as its ice cream. The classic is poured thick and finished with whipped cream, all glossy chocolate and cloud-soft topping, while the vegan version swaps in coconut whip for a plant-based pour that still feels lavish. File this under after-dinner detours, cold-night cravings and very good reasons to cross the road for one last sweet thing.

We recommend calling ahead to confirm hot chocolate is currently on the menu; it may be still to come.

212 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North

142 Bridport Street, Albert Park

Le Petit Marché

For a taste of Paris in the form of a deliciously rich and creamy hot chocolate, you need to try Le Petit Marché. Their hot chocolates went viral on TikTok last year as videos of people spooning freshly whipped cream into drinks so thick they looked like melted chocolate graced our ‘For You’ pages. And trust us, this hot chocolate tastes even better than it looks – which you would think impossible, since it’s so aesthetic.

146 Greville Street, Prahran

Koko Black Lounge

Koko Black has spent more than two decades making hot chocolate a seated occasion rather than an afterthought. Its current signature recipe folds 54% dark chocolate through milk and cream for a smooth, full-bodied cup with more cocoa depth than sugar. Classic is the dependable order, while salted caramel and chai provide sweeter and more aromatic diversions.

Sitchu Tip: Settle into one of the chocolate lounges and let a praline on the side become inevitable.

Royal Arcade, Chadstone Shopping Centre & Highpoint Shopping Centre

Ratio Cocoa Roasters

Ratio approaches hot chocolate with the curiosity of a coffee roaster. Cacao beans are roasted and transformed into chocolate inside its Brunswick factory, allowing you to explore single-origin cups with distinct fruit, spice and roasted notes rather than one anonymous house blend. Each arrives smooth, dark and accompanied by a house-made marshmallow ready to surrender into the heat. For cacao purists, there is even a tea-like version brewed from the nibs themselves.

186 Sydney Road, Brunswick

Sonido

A hot chocolate with cheese? Relax, it’s a Colombian thing. Sonido serves its hot chocolate in a cute yellow mug alongside stretchy, spoonable cheese — the full Colombian-style experience that marries savoury and sweet in one warm cup. It is unlike anything else on this list, which is precisely why it belongs here. For anyone raised on neat little cups of cocoa, this is the beautiful curveball: a winter drink that refuses to behave and is much better for it.

69 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Still craving something sweet? Once you have worked your way through the best hot chocolate in Melbourne, keep the sugar trail going with our guides to Melbourne’s best bakeries, cake shops and viral drinks.

Writer

Kelsey Harrington

20 July 2026

Kelsey Harrington is a Melbourne-based writer with a sharp eye for the city's ever-evolving food, wine, arts, and culture scene. Her journey into the creative industry took the scenic route—what started as a passion for capturing Melbourne’s energy through a camera lens led her to Sitchu, where she worked her way up to Melbourne Editor. With over four years in the industry, she’s all about uncovering the best places to eat, drink, and explore. Off the clock? You’ll find her diving into a platter of fresh oysters and crudo, gallery-hopping, or sipping an extra dirty martini while plotting her next adventure.