Pidapipo Hot Chocolate (23/06/25)

 The other day, I caught up with my friend Vani over a hot choccy at Pidapipo on Lygon St. Now what's unusual about the nature of this hot choccy is that Pidapipo is an Ice Cream spot; or a gelateria if you will. Whilst I am starting to hear of more and more ice cream spots serving up hot choccys these days, this was still a first. 

This hot choccy was a premium hot choccy; which seems pretty consistent with most of the other ones I've been trying lately.  As such, it was $10.50 and is the sort of hot choccy I'd try out and enjoy but not really try again anytime soon. I don't mean that in a particularly negative way; that's just the reality of it. That being said this isn't the case for the other premium hot choccys I've tried recently which I would deem worthy enough to try out again if ever I'm in the area. 

Whilst Pidapipo's hot choccy had its 'highs, they were brought down with some valid lows. Case in point; the flavour and texture of this bev was excellent. It had a very hazelnutty (or just nutty in general) flavour to it which I very much enjoyed. There was also small, crushed and candied pieces of hazelnut floating around the surface which gave it a nice chocolatey bite to it which was awesome. Additionally, the texture of the drink was rich, creamy and a perfect amount of thick. It wasn't way too chocolatey and thick like I've seen before, but it wasn't too thin or milky which is very common with hot choccy's in Melb. It had a perfect smooth sipping texture to it. Now these plus points are accompanied by some things which I personally didn't enjoy that much. I would like to note that these aren't to do with the quality of the bev and how they made it but more so the choices of Pidapipo for this hot choccy which just didn't sit well with me (which is arguably worse than a poor quality hot choccy). 

The first problem I had with it was that the dollop of ice cream in it. I understand that it is an ice cream spot but to me, it felt like this did more harm than good and wasn't really necessary. The dichotomy of a "Hot" choccy with "ice" cream was to be expected. The Ice cream caused the the first sip of the hot choccy to be warm at best. Every consequent sip (which were not far apart) was significantly cooler than the last which meant that this hot choccy had to be drank fast, else it'll be a ... cold chocolate ! Also the contrast in temperatures caused the ice cream to melt and whilst this added to the creaminess part of the texture, it also thinned out the hot choccy. Overall, I felt as if the hot choccy would benefit from the removal of the Ice cream and that it didn't really have any place being in the bev. 

There was also marshmallows in it as well. I have less to say about this except for the fact that I personally don't like them. They didn't add anything to it for me but they also didn't negate any of the aforementioned pros like the Ice cream did. So I guess there's that. 

In summation, whilst the Hot Choccy at Pidapipo was really nice flavour and texture wise, it wasn't boundary pushing or simply good enough to account for it's shortcomings (in my eyes only of course). Whilst that sounds wildly inflammatory - what I mean to say is that while undoubtedly I enjoyed the hot choccy and the experience; it's not one I see myself going back to anytime soon. 

Thank you.