ACKC Cocoa Bar has the largest selection of hot chocolate variations. You can choose from 15 options named after sirens of stage and screen in a range of milk, bittersweet, dark and white chocolates. The menu has fruity flavors like raspberry and orange; spices like cardamom and clove; or basics like espresso and hazelnut. And if it's warm outside, you can get them as chilly milkshakes (Old Town location as well).

Omanhene Chocolate cocoa powder and chocolate is a favorite for hot chocolate among coffee shops in D.C. Chinatown Coffee Co. whisks the chocolate into Trickling Springs milk to incorporate it, and then additional steamed milk is added to bring it to just the right, non-scalding temperature.

A chocolate-centric restaurant is naturally going to have great hot chocolate. Hot or frozen, you can pick from dark, milk, and white chocolate or peanut butter, salted caramel, chipotle or pumpkin spice chocolates. If you can't decide, get a sampler of three.

With a name like Locolat Cafe, it's only natural the Belgian cafe would serve great hot chocolate. Choose from hot or cold milk mixed with milk, dark, white, caramel or cappuccino chocolates.

Like most coffee shops, Peregrine Coffee sells hot chocolate for the kids or the adult who never really grew up. They use chocolate from fair-trade producer Omanhene Chocolate, which is made exclusively from cacao beans grown in Ghana (multiple locations)

Poste's menu has always been heavy on the pork. So it's natural that the hot chocolate would come with a little pork. The smokin' bacon hot chocolate features hot cocoa mixed with bacon-infused Bulleit bourbon, and garnished with a housemade bacon cayenne marshmallow.

Pastries and macarons aren't the only sweets at The Sweet Lobby. Thick European-style hot chocolate can be garnished with cardamom whipped cream, and one of the flavored house made marshmallows.

One of the best ways to enjoy hot chocolate is with churros. The hot chocolate fills all the small pockets in the fried dough, making for a warm chocolatey pastry. Dolcezza's Valrhona hot chocolate makes it the best place to have the two together (multiple locations).