The rich, decadent smell of melted chocolate. The warmth seeping into your hands. Whipped cream with any number of toppings or flavors mixed into this sweet drink. Hot chocolate, the best warm beverage of the holidays.

On the corner of Litchfield Road and Bell Road is a cute, little drive-thru coffee shop that can often be found with long lines in the morning and their cups on somebody’s Snapchat story. That’s right, it’s Dutch Bros Coffee, my go-to coffee shop for any kind of drink! This holiday season, I decided to try one of their flavored hot cocoas.

Chelsea Olewnik

With so many options, I eventually narrowed it down to the French toast hot cocoa or the birthday cake hot cocoa. When we ordered, I asked the employee which one he thought was better. He recommended I get the french toast hot cocoa, which I happily did.

Now, one thing that makes Dutch Bros great is their employees. They always have a smile on their face and are willing to help in anyway they can. They are extremely nice and treat you like a friend, which is very refreshing after going to a store where the employees are very uncaring or rude to the customers.

The hot cocoa came in a cute holiday-themed cup with a blue lid that had a little phrase on it. Mine read “Stay true. Stay proud. Stay Dutch.” As did my mom’s. However, my stepdad’s read “Make today an adventure.” I thought these were a cute touch to the cups. Inside, the cocoa was a rich brown that had melted whipped cream on top. It looked almost as good as it smelled! While I thought my mom’s hot cocoa, the Golden Eagle, a vanilla and caramel flavored drink, smelled better, mine still had a decadent aroma of melted chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. I was so excited to try it.

The warmth swept into my mouth, the flavor making my taste buds dance with happiness. It wasn’t hot enough to burn my mouth, it was exactly the right temperature. It had a nice cinnamon aftertaste. It wasn’t too much cinnamon, it was a pleasant additional flavor. There was an undercurrent of something I wasn’t quite able to place in the moment, but eventually determined that it was white chocolate because of the website. The mixture of flavors was such an amazing combination, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the drink. I found my new go-to winter drink: the French Toast hot cocoa at Dutch Bros Coffee.