Hot Chocolate Wars: Good Karma and Ants Pants Cafe

You win some, you lose some, right? To me, hot chocolate either falls somewhere on the scale of good-to-great, or it is just really bad. I've written about a bunch of spots that I like around Philadelphia for this "Hot Chocolate Wars" series, but here are two places you are better off drinking something else.

Ants Pants hot chocolate

I am a big fan of Australian-themed Ants Pants Cafe at 22nd & South for its bacon, egg and cheese croissant sandwiches. The sweet potato fries - which come with sour cream and a sweet chili sauce for dipping - and the hand-cut potato chip fries are also awesome. But when I ordered a hot chocolate recently, I was quite disappointed. It was totally watered down and, even worse, served in a hard plastic water cup that retained absolutely zero heat. If you've had better there, let me know because hopefully my experience wasn't the norm. Otherwise, lesson learned. I'll stick to tea and OJ with my breakfast sammie.


Good Karma Cafe at 22nd & Pine is always packed with studious-looking twenty somethings and has a good reputation as an ecologically and socially responsible business. It's also dog friendly and has a handful of outside seats for nicer weather. Bradd says the coffee is fine and I have personally enjoyed the muffins. Unfortunately I've tried the hot chocolate a couple times and it just doesn't measure up. Also watered down, it's neither hot nor chocolaty. Mixing it doesn't help either. Bummer for non-coffee drinkers because the cafe is so convenient to anyone in the Fitler Square and Graduate Hospital area.