Trying Seven Cocoas From Around Neopia

     Yes, I could have gone to Roo Island, simply gone to their incredible far-reaching café, The Coffee Cave, to try imports from around Neopia, but I decided the way to do this was to travel, try authentic cocoas from their homes while in their homes. Get the full experience.

     I did start my research there to inform my travels, sipping my way down the import menu with a notebook and a rapidly growing list. Think of that as the scouting trip. Everything after this is the real thing.

     First stop was not too far from Roo Island, starting with the Basics in Neopia Central.

     Neopia Central

      The Cocoa: Aisha Hot Chocolate

     Is It Borovan?: No

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Neopia Central

     The Shop I Tried: Neopian Fresh Foods

     I started out right in my home town, and I'll admit it felt a little silly bringing a notebook into Neopian Fresh Foods, a shop I've been ducking into for years without once thinking to review it. But there's a point to starting here. Before I could pass judgment on frozen borovan at the top of a mountain or cocoa on a space station, I needed a baseline, and there is nowhere better to set one than the shop down the street.

          My Review: The menu described this as a "special treat for Aisha Day", but it seems to be available year-round. This cocoa is truly starting with the basics, which is a good place to start. Every time this is served it's served in a cute Aisha-shaped mug, you can even order one to go for a little extra. The Aisha mug does a lot of the presentation work, but it is charming and balances out the otherwise simplicity of the drink itself. The cocoa is rich, but still milky and light. There is enough chocolate flavour to keep it satisfying, while all that milk keeps the whole thing from becoming too heavy or overly sweet. No extravagant flourishes, just pure chocolate, milk and sugar.

     Space Station

     The Cocoa: Space Cocoa

     Is It Borovan?: No

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Virtupets Space Station

     The Shop I Tried: Grundo's Cafe

     My Review:

     This was certainly the furthest I've traveled for a food blog before. I know I could order in, but authenticity is the name of the game, here! After arranging travel up to the space station, I first stopped in with my host, which is less an organized hotel and more of a small grouping of pods functioning as rooms. Fortunately I packed light. After acquainting myself with my surroundings (I didn't take long), I asked my guide on how to get to Grundo's Cafe, the main eatery here on the space station.

     At Grundo's Cafe I tried the freeze-dried hot cocoa – twice. Now this is meant to be prepared with boiling water to reconstitute it, but everybody told me if I truly wanted to try it I had to eat it dry (and crunchy) so I did! The cocoa was served in a plastic air-tight packet, and eaten straight from it, it's less a drink than a snack: airy little cocoa pebbles that crunch, then dissolve on the tongue into something surprisingly chocolatey, if a bit dusty by the last handful. Reconstituted with boiling water, it becomes a fine-enough, if somewhat thin, hot cocoa that tastes like it came out of a packet... because it did. I hate to say it, but the locals are right. Eat it dry.

     Terror Mountain

     The Cocoa: Cup of Frozen Borovan

     Is It Borovan?: Yes

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Top Of Terror Mountain

     The Shop I Tried: Super Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop

     My Review:

     My next cocoa found me at the top of Terror Mountain. Not the tippy tippy top, but close to it.

     I stayed in a little timber chalet just below the summit, the kind with a fireplace is doing as much work for ambiance as it does for warmth. The owner warned me the walk up to the Super Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop would be "brisk", which turns out "you will not feel your face by the time you're done."

     This was my first borovan of this cocoa adventure. I know opinions on the asparagus are quite divided amongst Neopians, but I land firmly on the side of support. It would be hard to get through this review series if I hadn't. For those unfamiliar the asparagus might sound unpleasant, something destined for a Gross Food product from the Alien Aisha Vending Machine, but something about it just works. This particular borovan? Not so much.

     It arrived frozen. And I mean *frozen*. I don't mean like a twee little slushie type borovan that was popular years ago, I mean I got a block of ice. But was it a popsicle? No. It came in a mug – a mug that itself had icicles hanging off of it. Sheepishly I licked the surface of the borovan, and my tongue got stuck! I panicked a little, and darted my eyes around hoping nobody was seeing me. If anybody did, I'll remain in blissful ignorance and request you, dear readers, imagine I handled this with all of the grace and composure there is. I waited for it to melt a bit, but as it did, the components began to separate, and I must admit, this one I did not finish.

          Moltara

     The Cocoa: Blazing Stone Mug of Borovan

     Is It Borovan?: Yes

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Moltara City

     The Shop I Tried: Molten Morsels

     My Review:

     This Borovan was the opposite of my last one in almost every way. This time I traveled deep underground to the city of Moltara, shedding layers as I went. Even my journeys through The Lost Desert haven't been this sweltering. Once again I felt my ears pop, this time as I descended instead of on ascension.

     In Moltara I stayed at a guesthouse carved right into the cavern wall, where every room is insulated by the thick rock, but still heated by a magma channel that run safely behind the stone. The bed was warm. The floor was warm. The doorknob was warm. Everything was warm.

     This dish was served with potholders on the side. My first thought was, if I can't hold it, I can't taste it, and I very nearly said so out loud. The mug was a hunk of dark volcanic stone, glowing red from the heat. Even as the borovan inside cooled to a drinkable temperature, the mug stayed blazing hot. I never did manage to pick it up bare-handed. Once it was cool enough to drink, first through tiny sips that I blew on vigirously, it was worth the wait: dark, almost smoky chocolate, with the asparagus coming through as something green and grassy underneath, and a faint mineral note I'm going to attribute to the mug. Somehow, I still can't fully explain this, a scalding drink in a scalding city didn't feel like too much. Maybe when everything around you is already hot, one more hot thing stops registering. Or maybe Moltarans just know something the rest of us don't.

      Qasala

      The Cocoa: Hot Chocolate Dip

     Is It Borovan?: No

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: The City of Qasala

     The Shop I Tried: Qasalan Delights

     My Review:

     Getting to Qasala means crossing the Lost Desert, which I did by caravan. I stayed in a sandstone hostel near the center of the city, with walls thick enough to keep the rooms cool through the day and, as I discovered, a little too cool at night. Which, in fairness, made a hot chocolate dip a very easy sell.

     So this wasn't exactly hot cocoa itself, it was a dip made from cocoa, sort of an extra thick and heavy hot cocoa. It was served with a plate of toasted marshmallows and slices of Tchea fruit and Ummagine to dip into it.

     I loved it. The dip is thick enough to coat whatever you put into it and actually stay there, and it's the darkest, least sweet chocolate of the whole trip, which is exactly what you want when the things you're dipping are as sweet as marshmallows and perfectly-ripe fruit. The menu says it's cooked "in the fashion of the ancients," which I have no way of verifying, but I can tell you that I scraped the bowl. Whether it counts as hot cocoa is a question for stricter writers than me.

      Altador

     The Cocoa: Deconstructed Gourmet Borovan

     Is It Borovan?: Yes

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Altador

     The Shop I Tried: Exquisite Ambrosia

     My Review:

     Altador is all marble and columns and sunshine, and it makes you feel underdressed just walking around in it. I stayed in a hotel a short walk from the Hall of Heroes, with a balcony looking out over the Colosseum, and I spent my entire first evening sitting on it doing absolutely nothing. The next, I went to Exquisite Ambrosia.

     What arrived was a tray: a small cup of very good hot chocolate, a small dish of very good asparagus, and a little spoon, as though assembling the thing were my job.

     Again, I'm not really being strict with the rules on what constitutes hot chocolate, but this one was a swing and a miss. The art of borovan is how well one incorporates and mixes the two contrasting flavours. A deconstructed one skips that art. I'm not wholly against the deconstruction trend, but this is one dish where I'd say it's a "never".

           Kiko Lake

      The Cocoa: Kiko Christmas Hot Chocolate Mug

     Is It Borovan?: No

     Where in Neopia do I find it?: Kiko Lake

     The Shop I Tried: Kiko Lake Treats

     My Review:

     So far for this article I've traveled to the top of a mountain, I've slept deep under the surface of Neopia, and now I travel underwater. For my visit to Kiko Lake I stayed at an underwater hotel that's adapted for land-dwelling creatures such as myself. The hotel is split between a dry wing, where I stayed, and a flooded wing for the Kikos and other water-dwellers, with a shared lounge in the middle that's half deck and half pool.

     Like the start of my journey, I'm ending with a basic, truly reliable. While garnished for the winter season, miniature tree and all, this cocoa is served year round in a mug adorned with the face of a Kiko, like the many that call this place their home. The cocoa itself is rich and smooth, a touch sweeter than the Aisha Hot Chocolate I started with, and it smells, well, the menu says "absolutely perfect," and I'm not going to argue. After frozen borovan, deconstructed borovan, and a cocoa I ate with my teeth, it was a relief to finish with something that simply did its job beautifully.

     Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat. There are plenty of cocoas I never got to, and the Roo Island Coffee Cave menu is still sitting there waiting for me. But it turns out the best place to drink a cocoa is wherever it was made.