Mixed Review: Serendipity 3 Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

Posted by Lucy Baker, August 14, 2010 at 1:00 PM

Who says it has to be winter for hot chocolate? Serendipity 3, a madcap dessert parlor in New York City, is famous for their Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. The decadent-to-the-max drink is a secret blend of 14 different kinds of cocoa topped off with a mountain of whipped cream and showers of shaved chocolate. Legend has it that Jackie Kennedy once requested the recipe so that it could be served at the White House—and was denied!

Fortunately, Serendipity's Frrrozen Hot Chocolate is now available as a mix ($16) that is simple to prepare—and impossible to stop slurping.

Since the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3 tastes like the love child of a milkshake and a slushy, I wasn't surprised by the package instructions: pour one cup of milk, the contents of one packet of mix, and three cups of ice (in that order) into a blender. Blend until smooth, adding more ice or milk to achieve the desired consistency. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate.

The Frrrozen Hot Chocolate is traditionally served in a fishbowl-sized glass with two straws. It's an enormous portion—more than enough to satisfy a pair of ravenous chocoholics—and in this regard, the mix didn't disappoint. One packet yielded "one serving," which turned out to be almost an entire blender full of the fudgy, icy concoction. It was easily enough to serve four normal dessert eaters.

Since I didn't have any appropriately sized glassware, I poured a modest portion of the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate into a rocks glass. Then I added a lot of whipped cream, and shaved part of a Ghirardelli bar over the top with a vegetable peeler. I stuck a straw in the middle, and voila! It looked like a mini version of the restaurant classic--a Frrrozen Hot Chocolate Jr. of sorts.

It was a hot August night, and I have to say, I found the drink pretty irresistible. But did it make me want to "dance on the chandeliers" as the dessert parlor original reportedly did Oprah? Not quite. I could certainly appreciate the high-quality cocoa, but overall the chocolate flavor fell a little flat. With a supposed fourteen different kinds of cocoa, I was expecting a bit more complexity. Where were the layers of flavor? In the end, I would recommend splurging on this mix only as a souvenir or as a gift for someone who truly loves Serendipity 3. Otherwise, I bet you could create a reasonable facsimile with a package of supermarket hot chocolate mix.

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Tags: hot chocolate, Mixed Review, Serendipity