Battle of the Christmas hot chocolates

I love November. Partly because it means Halloween is over for another year, and partly because it marks the point where Christmas begins to make an appearance EVERYWHERE.

I love Christmas nearly as much as I love hot chocolate, so I obviously get extremely excited when the seasonal hot chocolates hit coffee shop menus in November.

I've tried five Christmas hot chocolates so far this year so I thought I'd give my readers a bit of a run down. Shockingly, I'm yet to sample one of these hot chocolates in a novelty Christmas cup as I haven't ordered one to take away yet... this situation definitely needs to be rectified as soon as possible. My Instagram profile demands it.

Billionaire's Hot Chocolate - Costa

Although I absolutely loved the shortbread topping on this hot chocolate,  the drink itself was a bit too sweet even for me! Still, I've had two of them (the first had a much more generous topping than this one) so it can't be too bad... 

Black Forest Hot Chocolate - Costa

I really liked this one and will definitely be ordering more of these before they get discontinued. It tasted really good, and I was particularly excited about the glitzy purple flakes scattered on top. 

Lindt Hot Chocolate - Costa 

You might remember that the Lindt hot chocolate was only available in the 'Cortado' size last year which was pretty tiny, quite frankly. It's available as a regular-sized hot chocolate this year and, although it might look a bit 'no frills' compared to the others, it's very tasty and feels like a real treat. 

Roasted Hazelnut Hot Chocolate - Caffè Nero 

This is my favourite of the lot! Loads of flavour, oodles of thick chocolate-sprinkled cream, and not too sickly. I also like it that Caffè Nero offer exactly the same festive flavours for both their coffees and hot chocolates, unlike Costa and Starbucks who choose to segregate. 

Fudge Hot Chocolate - Starbucks 

I didn't take a picture of this one because the lighting is terrible in my local Starbucks (#firstworldproblems). Starbucks is usually my least favourite of these three chains, but I really enjoyed my fudge hot chocolate and thought it was a definite step up from last year's Christmas range. 

What's your favourite festive hot chocolate?