Kakawa Chocolate House

The 12 Best Restaurants in Santa Fe

"Willy Wonka has nothing on husband-and-wife team and Kakawa owners Bonnie and Tony Bennett. The duo packs their City Different display cases with goat cheese truffles and caramels infused with locally grown lavender. But this shop also celebrates the region’s long love affair with chocolate and chile—a pairing dating to the Aztec and Mayan civilizations in the Americas—with red-chile caramels and chile solid dark chocolates. It also bypasses traditional milk-based hot chocolates for potent chocolate elixirs, the favored drink of the pre-Columbian cultures who first championed culinary cacao. Diners sip these unsweetened drinks made with water, chocolate, herbs, nuts, spices, and chile in blue-and-white Mexican Talavera espresso cups in a quaint adobe just off Canyon Road and two other City Different locations." - Ashley M. Biggers