🥵☕ Our hottest hot chocolate takes

💬 What do Zohran Mamdani and the Louvre have in common? They’re both among the most mispronounced words of 2025! And there are a LOT more where that came from.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

🌸 On the seventh day of B-Side, the newsletter gave to me … 15 scent class voucher bottles (valued at $85 each)! At Olfactory, you can blend your very own signature fragrance using premium oils and expert guidance. Their hands-on workshops walk you through selecting notes, experimenting with blends, and crafting a personalized perfume that’s uniquely yours. It’s an immersive, creative experience, or a thoughtful gift.

👀 Want in? Just be one of the first 15 members to fill out the form in your email TODAY between 11–12 p.m, and we’ll send you a special gift bottle in the mail before the new year!

Now, onto our regularly scheduled programming …

So you want Boston's BEST hot chocolate. Where do you start? Enter: B-Side Hotline, our new series that’ll help you find the absolute best of what Boston has to offer, featuring recs from us, local experts, and YOU, our wonderful, picky readers. 

First up? Hot chocolate.

☕ L.A. Burdick, Back Bay. Look, it’s a classic for a reason. A whopping 60% of B-Siders said L.A. Burdick has the best hot — sorry, drinking — chocolate in Boston. The portions are small (and pricey) but so rich and decadent. One reader said: “If the hot cocoa can't double as chocolate syrup, does it even count?” Bonus: Its at-home kits make a great holiday gift!

😋 Cacao, South End. Although it wasn’t in our reader poll, Cacao got the most write-ins by far. Again, don’t call it cocoa — it’s basically melted chocolate. You can expect a similarly rich texture to L.A. Burdick’s, but with a smattering of fun flavors. B-Siders recommended the spicy hot chocolate. We’d also keep an eye out for seasonal specials like pumpkin spice and gingerbread.

🍫 1369 Coffee House, Cambridge. Hot take: I (Gia) don’t want my cocoa to taste like straight melted chocolate. I want it to taste like Swiss Miss: Chocolatey, sweet, and, yes, a little milky. And 1369’s luscious version fits the bill. Pro tip: For the optimal chocolate-to-milk ratio, give it a gentle stir before you sip because the chocolate tends to settle at the bottom. And while you’re there, grab a delightful raccoon holiday card!

🚚 Snacks Box Boston, food truck (currently at SoWa). Marshmallows in cocoa? Cute. Emily upgraded to this Belgian hot chocolate with a toasted meringue rim — basically the love child between Burdick’s decadent cocoa and a s’more with a trust fund. This drink broke Boston's foodie FYP last year, so we were initially sus. But Emily can attest — there’s nothing else like it. Equally important: Their waffles!!!

This month’s expert is Rachel Leah Blumenthal, Boston magazine’s fabulous food editor who helped pen the pub’s official hot chocolate guide:

🤤 Elephantine Bakery, Seaport. This beautiful cafe expanded from Portsmouth to Boston’s Fort Point recently, bringing with it my new favorite hot chocolate — or, as the business calls it, French drinking chocolate. Read: super rich. (The thick whipped cream is the perfect foil.) Stay if you can get a seat: The space is so dreamy.

🔥 Elmendorf Baking Supplies and Cafe, Cambridge. Come for the cookbooks, kitchen tools, and grains (milled in-house!); stay for the seasonal hot chocolates. I love the “fireside” version, which adds a smoky touch of a Lapsang Souchong-Earl Grey tea blend. House-made marshmallows seal the deal.

😓 Mayor Wu took a few L’s this Wednesday. In its latest meeting, the Boston City Council was basically forced to approve a 13% property tax hike for homeowners after Mayor Wu’s recently revived campaign to shift the burden onto businesses died in the Senate (again). The council also unanimously approved a resolution pressuring Wu to provide an updated cost estimate for her controversial White Stadium renovation (which is expected to be well over the latest $91 million estimate) now that it appears her promise to do it by year’s end ain’t happening. Woof.

🌊 Climate change-fueled extreme weather is costing Mass. millions. No joke! Between 2011 and 2024, Mass.’ 11 major weather disasters have cost U.S. taxpayers over $541 million, per a new report. And Suffolk County was among the most heavily impacted areas, getting hit by eight. Flooding accounted for over half of said disasters, with rising sea levels causing a 333% increase in tidal flooding since 2000, but wildfires and heat emergencies are also on the rise — in 2024, Mass. set records in both. The solution? Investing in resilient infrastructure, experts say.

🙋‍♀️ Good news: Greater Boston’s gender pay gap shrunk by 43%! Bad news: It’s not because women are getting paid more … it’s ‘cause men are getting paid less, per a new report. Apparently, between 2023 and 2025, the average Boston man’s yearly compensation decreased by 16% (from $139,000 to $116,409), while the average woman's yearly compensation decreased by 2% (from $97,820 to $95,515). That said, it’s not all bad. Another factor is that women are taking up more C-suite positions, with a 7% increase since 2023. 

🏂 City Hall Plaza is about to SHRED (again). Red Bull’s free “Heavy Metal” street snowboarding competition is coming back to Boston in 2026 after this year’s debut! And by street snowboarding, we literally mean snowboarding on the street. See: City Hall Plaza completely transformed into a snowy competition zone, with riders flipping off the side of the building and shredding down staircases. This time, Heavy Metal will be a three-part series, with two January qualifiers in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, followed by the Feb. 21 finals(!) here in Boston. LET’S GO!

If you’re going to indulge, now’s the time. Get $8 off $30 using code BDD25 and score warm apple fritters, massive donuts, and all the late-night bakery magic without leaving the couch. Holiday stress doesn’t stand a chance against a box of these. (Pro tip: Order extra. Your future self will thank you.)

🌠 Make a wish on a shooting star. There should be plenty with the gorgina Geminid meteor shower slated to peak this weekend. Here’s the best way to catch it. 

♥️ Shop (and support) Indigenous artists. Crafts, artwork, clothing, jewelry, home goods — they’re all on the table at the Cultural Survival Bazaar in the South End on Dec. 13 and 14.

💃 Pretend the Eras Tour never ended. We’re celebrating T-Swift’s b-day at Urban Wild’s Eras Tour watch party on Dec. 13. Yes, there will be friendship bracelets. <3

🎨 Level up your paint night game. Artist Ilana Porkhovnik will share all her oil pastel tricks at this paint and sip class on Dec. 13. Your $30 ticket comes with all materials, instruction, and a drink!

☃️ Strut your way through the Seaport. The neighborhood’s holiday stroll is Dec. 13, and they’re going all out with TONS of discounts at your favorite spots. Think: 20% off Van Leeuwen ice cream, three complimentary Pop-Up Bagels with a six-pack purchase, and sweet treats galore. 

🍪 Flex your holiday baking skills. We’ve seen tons of chatter about this MEGA Somerville cookie swap happening Dec. 14. The plan: Come with 24 homemade cookies (at the minimum), leave with 24 cookies.

🎄 Start your holiday market engines. Let’s just say, this weekend is STACKED. See: This Black-owned biz holiday market, Cambridge’s holiday art market, and Formaggio Kitchen’s festive take.

🍕 Make tonight’s dinner plans easy. B-Side Members get $10 off their $30 in-market order at Time Out Market TODAY. Just ask for the manager on duty, they’ll approve your B-Side pass! Become a member here. <3

How’s THIS for a local angle: Rumor has it, Taylor Swift is planning to tie the knot with Travis Kelce at Rhode Island’s swanky Ocean House hotel on June 13, 2026.

Of course, when we say rumor has it, we mean Page Six, so you can probably take it with a grain of salt. (The same story also reported that Swift paid off another couple to secure the weekend — which the hotel denies). But that hasn’t stopped tons of media outlets from running with the story anyway.

However, we do know that she’s currently dropping $1.7 million to renovate her iconic Westerly home, which is also rumored to be the wedding venue. So … stay tuned!

— Written by Gia Orsino, Emily Schario, and Claire Nicholas

💍 Thanks for reading! If anyone working at Ocean House is reading this and wants to spill, our inboxes are WIDE open.

🍕 The results are in: 43% of B-Siders voted to have hot honey and banana peppers as the toppings of our B-Side Pizza, and with that, it’s officially complete! One reader said: “Gotta keep it veggie for the plant-based girlies 😉.”

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