Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Angelina goes retail

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Angelina goes retail (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/angelina-goes-retail-56913/)

Angelina goes retail

In the Norm Thompson catalog, for sale, sit down and hold onto your hats... *Angelina Hot Chocolate Mix for Sale* www.normthompson.com 800-547-1160 Ain't life grand?

Sorry, Elvira, we're not familiar with this product. Can you describe it? What is the price in the catalog? Is this a European concoction? As chocoholics, we surely must be prospects.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy :) There is a God

Al, I'm not sure a real chocoholic would ask the price....

I have NO idea if it'll taste as good as the stuff in the Paris tearoom, but I just signed over my 401k to Norm Thompson to find out...they'll deliver it in a boxcar and all I have to do is rent a semi and flatbed to pick it up...

elvira, You must be an angel, you've brought tidings of great joy. elaine

Al (and anyone else who is not familiar with this great product) this is the scoop. Funny, when I read Elvira's post, I could taste and smell that luscious hot chocolate - mmmmm. Thanks, Elvira for sharing your find. This forum is where I learned about the legendary Angelina's, and what a treat it was. Worth every cent. Angelina Cocoa Tucked in an arcade across from the Tuilerie Gardens in Paris, the Angelina salon de thé serves up its special blend of elegance as it has for most of this century. Amidst frescoes and chandeliers, Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust once could be found, imbibing ambience and the now world-famous hot chocolate drink Chocolat l’Africain. Rich and fragrant, this still-original recipe has a cocoa content higher than most confectioners’ chocolate (72%). Serve boiling hot in a demitasse with a dollop of fresh whipped cream on top. Net wt. 14 oz. 13756 Angelina Cocoa $29.50

One side, ladies -- I gotta get some! Hang the cost! You have pushed our hot button, let me tell you, and there's no stopping this herd! Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Wow that's $45 Canadian plus shipping and duty... are you telling me it's *that* good? :)

What I want to know, is does anyone actually drink this stuff in a demitasse cup? the catalog picture looks more like a big latte cup to me! I think I may have to try some of this too. Wish I could go to Paris to do it!!

I'm still debating on whether or not this is a good thing! I just spent too much money at this site. I never visited Angelina's in Paris, but I'm sure after tasting this, I'll make it the first stop on my next visit. I can't wait to get my order!! Thanks everyone.

Excerpted from today's NY Times: November 21, 1999 CHOICE TABLES / By JACQUELINE FRIEDRICH Where Teatime Has a Parisian Flair - - read the entire article at: http://www.nytimes.com/library/trave.../ct991121.html or for just the four paragraphs on Angelina: (note: this is an unauthorized copyright violation - - for personal use and educational purposes only - - wink!) -------------------------------- On a recent rainy fall afternoon, everyone at Angelina seemed to be drinking hot chocolate, one of the house specialties. Called L'Africain, it is made by melting chocolate and sugar in a copper pot and blending it with milk. It is served in a pitcher with a side of unsweetened whipped cream. And it's one of life's guilty little pleasures to sit at a marble-topped table in this vast room, with its Napoleon III columns, gilt-framed murals and huge mirrors, sipping this thick, deeply chocolaty brew and taking in the Tuileries Gardens across the street and the wave of humanity passing through the Rivoli arcade outside the front window. At teatime you can also eat large salads, light dishes like croque-monsieur or quiche or American-style ice cream sundaes (perhaps a legacy of the address's previous incarnation as Rumpelmayer's) or choose among such pastries as Le Mont Blanc, consisting of meringue, chestnut cream and whipped cream. In truth, the pastries I've tasted -- baba au rhum, for example, or chocolate rum raisin cake -- have been good but rather standard. Perhaps the most touristy of the city's tea salons, Angelina nevertheless remains thoroughly Parisian. And it's always very busy. Turnover is rapid, however. And service is prompt and mostly polite, though it can get a tad edgy at the end of the day. Angelina, 226, rue de Rivoli, 1st; (33-1) 42.60.82.00. All major credit cards except Diners Club. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, until 7:30 weekends. About $28.

I loved the hot chocolate from Angelina's and I brought some home from there and I thought that it was awful.

Can anyone please tell me if the Paris Angelina is open in August?

I had lunch at Angelina's in the Gallieries Lafayette Department Store in May. This is a beautiful, upscale dept. store, worth a visit with or without Angelina's. Also, check out the store's food hall in their building across the street.

Toally agree with Dawn. I also had a chocolate at Angelina in Paris and bought a 14 0z. pack back home. For whatever reason, the home bought mix is not as good. I deduced that the ambience of the place plus the fact that I was in Paris (period!) makes everything taste, look, etc., etc. better!

So Elvira et al, can you report back on whether the mail order stuff lived up to expectations? (I'll guess not, actually, as it's never as good as when you're there, in the moment.)

The Angelina Hot Chocolate Mix is expensive. About $35 US or $6 per large cup. We've never tried the real thing in Paris, but, my wife (the true test on chocolate) says it's great.