With the promise of snow across the Alps, temperatures are plummeting, drawers are being ransacked for extra thermal layers and that all important question is on many a skier or snowboarders blue lips: where shall we go for hot chocolate?
Switzerland is the chocolate capital of the world, and Zermatt the best chocolate clich of them all. From the different sized chocolate Matterhorns that you can buy in the bakeries, to the slabs of different coloured, different textured, different flavoured cocoa delights lining the shops on the quaintly cobbled high street, chocolate here is a way of life to be proud of.
Zermatts three interconnected ski areas are well known for mountain gourmet restaurants, and stopping for a luxurious chocolat chaud is a great test of the best. After your breakfast fix in your ber luxury chalet, ski to Chez Vrony, which has a terrace with views of the Matterhorn that traps the sun even on the coldest days. There are soft, warm fleeces to sit on and woolen blankets to wrap round you as you point your sunglasses skywards, soak up the sun, and bury your nose in the chocolaty steam from your cup.
You are never far from the next stop. Ski to Flualp, listen to live music and dance on the tables in your ski boots. Next onto the elegant Riffelalp, reached on skis or by the Gornergrat railway. Thaw out your chilled hands around a huge mug of warming, rich-scented, thick hot chocolate in the tiny mountain hamlet of Zum See. Aprs ski chocolate, with a hefty dollop of local cherry schnaps can be taken at the Hennu stall, where more live music and dancing continues until dark and a short ski home.
But dont just ask for any old hot chocolate. In Zermatt you have to choose between dark, milk and white before you even start deciding on whipped cream, liqueur, vanilla, hazelnut or apricot kernel. But no marshmallows: in Zermatt your hot chocolate is served with a chocolate.
