Get It While It's Hot: Picante's Amazing Hot Cocoa

Pay no attention to the tempting menu of hot soups – chicken tortellini, pasta fagiole – at Ossining’s Picante Quimbayas Italian/Latin storefront cafe; they are down a cook right now.

Owner and cook Alfredo Uscanga has been busy opening a bar down the road at 12 Croton Avenue. In the meantime, his wife Lili Garza, working the counter, will still prepare for patrons a mean sandwich and any number of delicious drinks at this sun-yellow space that’s been at 193 Main Street for seven years.

This time of year of course, it’s all about the temperature. 

The hot chocolate here is arguably the best around, smoking hot and rich and crafted into enough varieties to please any aficionado.

But if you’re not in the mood for that treat of the season, there’s three white boards on the wall of liquid options to choose from: from fresh-made juices and smoothies to all kinds of coffee drinks, all from beans grown at a family coffee farm in Colombia.

What’s your favorite place in Croton and Ossining to get hot cocoa? Share below.