Hot Chocolat

What an absolute pleasure to learn how to make fine chocolates with Chef Michael! So patient and encouraging. a wonderful experience indeed! Merci, Chef Michael!!

Chef Michael Poole is a great instructor - he gives very detailed explanations, shows you the correct techniques, and will give you lots of confidence through hands on practice. His passion and skill are obvious.

Took the chocolate making class with Chef Michael and totally loved it! Will definitely take another class here. The chocolates are also 200% amazing.

We had a fruitful time learning the art of tempering and making chocolates.Ingredients, time, patience and achieving the exact temperature. Thank you for sharing.

The chef is super friendly and nice. I got these chocolates as a gift so can't taste them yet. The place is a bit tricky to find. It's in the north of the building, facing the Y

Chef Mike shared his bountiful knowledge of chocolate making while also entertaining us with stories from his career. For the chocolate you get at the end it is well worth the reasonable price! He also will certainly let you stir the ganache!

A few friends and I took the macaron cooking class and we all loved it. Michael is a great instructor, always trying to keep everyone entertained, learning, and happy. I would highly recommend his class and I hope he opens up more options in the future based on his extensive experience!

What an exceptional find in West Seattle. The quality is superb -- a wonderful balance of rich chocolate that melts in your mouth and beautiful artisan craftsmanship. Unlike some other high end chocolates that can be dense, these melt in your mouth with a lightness that feels like a delightfully rich chocolate cloud. We found Hot Chocolat by googling "handmade chocolate West Seattle," hoping to support a local business and also find something we would be proud to give as gifts. Hot Chocolat exceeded our expectations. The entire customer interaction was friendly and welcoming and the chocolates were some of the best we've ever tasted. Can't wait to go back for more!

Michael's artisan chocolates are both beautiful and delicious. The samplers are perfect for special occasions and gifts! After you order online, call to arrange pick-up with Michael. I didn't realize I needed to initiate the call; however, after I called in, the pick-up was easy with minimal contact. I purchased two sampler boxes, one for myself and one as a gift. After every piece, I kept thinking "alright that's my favorite!" As it turns out, I loved them all. And so did my gift recipients! Bonus that they came in gorgeous packaging. The macarons were also very good and melted in my mouth. My favorite macaron flavor was the lemon because it had a strong tang that cut through the sweetness. (Lemon is not usually my favorite flavor for dessert!) I'm disappointed that I didn't know about Hot Chocolat much sooner. But I do know that I will be back soon for more treats. Solid 5 stars.

Hot Chocolat's chocolates and Macaroons are the best in town. I sent some chocolates as a birthday present to my grandson. He loved all! Dark chocolate matcha Te, mango, vegan coconut ganache, dark chocolate pistachio I recommend all! He made a beautiful and exquisite assortment inside the box. Chef Michael makes the best Chocolates in town! He has great attention to detail. I called him with some details about my order. I had a breakdown with him because I just lost my husband. He was carrying and attentive. Today, I received his amazing chocolates and a box of the best macaroons so flavorful, colorful, just perfect! How sweet and thoughtful is that?! He sweetened up my day with a delicious treat Thanks Chef Michael!

The chocolates are so decadent! We love the caramel , matcha, pistachio and mango flavors the most. definitely can tell the taste is so gourmet. Highly recommend this place and we will get more for sure

I took a chocolate making class here with Chef Michael Poole and my girlfriend and we had an absolute blast! The chef is so kind and patient and hilarious, he made the whole experience so much fun and he has such an impressive background studying culinary arts in France and also being a firefighter, the whole experience was hands on and rewarding! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone interested! Goes without saying, the chocolates were AMAZING

I really enjoyed taking a chocolate making class at HotChocolat. Chef Poole was a great teacher and the class was entertaining. Each of us got to take home a big box of chocolates that we made!!! Perfect for a group of friends or a team building activity. We tasted some of his chocolates and they were wonderful! Looking forward to taking the French Macaroon class some day!

Chef Michael is the best! I would give 10 stars if I could! Run, don't walk to his kitchen for classes on how to make chocolates and macaroons. He is a legit french trained CHEF who has gone the extra mile and taken a ton of chocolate classes in France and Belgium. This resulted in the best cooking class I've ever taken! You also go home with a big box of treats that you made yourself!!! It was so fantastic that I then signed up for his macaron class. I don't buy macarons anymore because they are very easy to make...and freeze. It is great for a group or you can go alone. I took both his classes alone and it was fine but everyone else came with a friend. He is so friendly that you won't feel weird if you are a singleton. He keeps class sizes small (max. 6-8 people) so everyone gets to make chocolates or macarons themselves in a true hands-on experience. With the small class size, he is also able to offer more attention and help students with technique. In the macaron class, he helped/watched each of use pipe out round macaron shells and helped us do it correctly. In the chocolate class, I had trouble filling the chocolate molds and he talked me through each step. In my opinion, Chef Michael's classes are better than places like Hot Stove Society and Sur la Table because their classes have twice as many people so you work in groups rather than doing everything yourself. And because of the size, I don't feel like the instructors go around to everyone to offer extra help. Because of the large class size, I would call them interactive or a demo rather than truly hands-on. Chef Michael is better organized and a better teacher. It is clear he cares about being a good teacher and providing people a great experience. Also, that he continues to take classes about chocolates making means he knows what it is like to be a student. Some folks are very knowledgeable but aren't very good teachers. I think to be a good teacher you need to remember what it is like to be a student. Also, taking home a box of 12 chocolates or 18 macarons at the end makes the class almost pay for itself in treats. For that reason, the classes are a bargain.

I have ordered from Hot Chocolat 5 times this year - a couple of times for myself and a few times as gifts. So it's high time I leave a review! They offer two product lines: chocolate and macarons. The chocolates are exquisite. The flavors are so complex, delicate and layered; I have now eaten almost all the flavors but the standouts for me are the bananas foster, the matcha green tea, the hazelnut latte and the dark chocolate ganache. Other flavors I hugely enjoyed are the mango habanero caramel, coconut ganache and pistachio. The craftsmanship in the flavors would be enough to sell me, but the chocolates are also elaborately decorated. So this makes an outstanding gift, especially if you're trying to buy with a taste for fine things. :) As for the macarons: I lived in Paris and am insufferably picky about macarons. It is hard to find good ones in the United States. The macarons from Hot Chocolats are stellar for two reasons. The first is the texture. When you pick up a macaron, it should feel almost like it weighs nothing. Then when you bite into it, it may have a bit of a crisp exterior but should feel completely soft inside. These have exactly that texture - sublime. Secondly, a lot of macarons are a bit hard or stale by the time you get them, or you are racing against the clock to eat them in a day or two. These actually last a week. When the chef told me that they would last that long, I was skeptical, but he was right!! I don't know how he does it. It is really rare to find a great baker and a great chocolatier in one stop. Worth every penny, and what a gem to have in West Seattle.

Chef Michael makes amazing treats and gifts. They are beautifully presented and packaged, perfect for special occasions. He is also warm and flexible, and he makes pickup easy! I highly recommend Hot Chocolat!

We took a chocolate making class, and it was fantastic. It was hands-on, we learned to temper, shape, decorate, and even box the chocolate bonbons. Chef Poole was engaging, and talked to us about where things could go wrong, what to do about it. The only problem is we're now out of chocolate, and have to make more. :)