I took Papa Lam to Honolulu Coffee’s Downtown Vancouver Nelson location for their Hot Chocolate Festival creations. They have two flavours available throughout the festival. In fact, they have extended their offerings to end on February 17, 2025 (the official festival ends on February 14).
Hot Chocolates
Papa Lam absolutely loved Kim’s Berry ($12). It’s a vegan hot chocolate using 70% dark chocolate, oat milk, strawberry and gochujang. I’m actually a fan of chili in my chocolate so this was right up my alley as well. It’s fruity, with a subtle kick at the end. It’s well balanced and it’s really good. Definitely my favourite between the two.
The other hot chocolate flavour is Flora’s Glow ($12), with a blend of guava and orange zest, oat milk and 70% dark chocolate. I mostly tasted the orange flavour, which happens to be a flavour that I enjoy in my chocolate as well.
Both hot chocolates come with a vegan cookie. Kim’s Berry was paired with a vegan strawberry cookie, while Flora’s Glow was an orange almond cookie. They both looked nice, and I preferred the flavour and texture of the orange almond cookie over the strawberry one. The strawberry one was actually a bit hard and crunchy, which I didn’t expect based on its look. To me, the texture of both cookies are not quite the same as regular cookies.
Final Thoughts
I appreciate that both hot chocolates are made with dark chocolate so they’re less sweet while remaining rich and decadent. And the fact that they use oat milk makes it more accessible to those who are sensitive to lactose. Will you give these a try?
Honolulu Coffee Nelson
888 Nelson Street, Vancouver
honolulucoffeeyvr.com
VanFoodies.com 
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