The first stop on our 50 state coffee tour was French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, North Carolina. We drove up on an unusually snowy January day for the South. Apparently in the South one inch of snow on the ground makes the streets "undrivable" which caused almost every business to close down, even Starbucks. Lucky for us, French Broad Chocolates happened to be the only business open on this "wintery" day. Unlike any other coffee shop we had seen before, it was a mix between a coffee, ice cream, and chocolate shop. It is the perfect spot to satisfy a sweet tooth and caffeine craving. They offer a variety of flavors of hot chocolates, which they call a "liquid truffle", and a "chocolate sip" which is thicker and richer than the hot chocolate because it is made with melted chocolate. We tried the maple and sea salt liquid truffle but they offer a bunch of different flavors. Asheville is also a craft beer hot spot, so they offer different beer and cider floats with ice cream. For our first visit on the list it set pretty high expectations for the rest. We loved our experience at this shop. If you need recommendations, try the flourless chocolate tart (one of the best desserts we've ever had) and at least one person in your group should order one of the chocolate drinks so everyone can try.