Tammy Helfrich of Montgomery elected to come to downtown Aurora Friday night and settle in at the coffee house of Society 57 on River Street for the annual Cocoa Crawl put on by the Aurora Downtown group.
“I’ve come to this Cocoa Crawl the last five years. I come for the festivities,” she said. “I grew up drinking hot chocolate as a kid.”
She said “there are a bunch of places offering cocoa and we’ll probably hit three or four of them.”
The Cocoa Crawl, which was part of Aurora Downtown’s First Fridays event on Friday evening, gave participants an opportunity to sample the popular holiday drink in formulas from traditional to the more exotic.
Now in its sixth year, the annual Cocoa Crawl offered those who bought a souvenir mug the chance to sample drinks at over 30 locations including bars, restaurants and retailers.
Helfrich and friends met at Society 57 at 100 S. River St. which was again on board offering a fairly traditional recipe for the holiday drink.
“We like doing this. We like participating with the community in Aurora and create a fun experience for everyone to enjoy,” said supervisor Karina Benson at Society 57. “We’re offering a dark chocolate, Ghirardelli hot cocoa with whipped cream. We’re doing something similar as we did last year. We get a lot of visitors. I feel like maybe 75 to 100 on one of these nights. People are excited to try different cocoas and visit different businesses.”
Also on River Street, longtime Cocoa Crawl participant Wyckwood House was once again happy to take part in the annual event.
“This is a great event and is probably the biggest First Friday of the season for downtown Aurora,” said manager Alysia Shahady at Wyckwood House. “We always love partnering with the community and the city to bring the very best to our guests. We usually get several hundred to pass through for the whole evening. We have our own special recipe for hot cocoa with a few things people can add. We’ve been voted the best cocoa in the past even though ours is pretty traditional.”
Lori McBride of Somonauk said this was her first time attending the Cocoa Crawl and that she was looking forward to “going out with some grade school friends and enjoying some cocoa.”
“I think this is a super cute idea and it’s a great marketing idea,” she said. “For me, a killer cup of hot chocolate has to be very chocolatey and no milk – only water. I like a little caramel sometimes in there too.”
Jennifer Pierson of Yorkville also was a first-time visitor who said she came out to celebrate her daughter’s 18th birthday Friday.
“I grew up with cocoa as a kid, of course. We’ll probably hit five or six places. We’ve never done this, so we’ll see,” Pierson said.
Mark Agustin of Bartlett visited Society 57 for the event and said that for him, drinking cocoa evokes childhood memories “since my parents made it for us as kids.”
“A good hot chocolate, for me, is a rich one like a Mexican chocolate,” he said. “It’s gotta have milk. I love milk, no water. My girlfriend and I were looking to try something else this season. We often do the lights at the Morton Arboretum, but we decided to try something different this year, and it’s way cheaper.”
Kristen Krope of Aurora stopped in at Wyckwood House and said she too was at her first Cocoa Crawl “after being here at the Wyckwood House about three or four weeks ago for an event.”
“I found out about the crawl then and I was like, I’m buying my mug early on and decided to come down,” she said. “I’ll probably hit a handful of places, but it depends on how much shopping I do. As far as a cocoa, it needs to be extra chocolatey.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
