Edinburgh’s colourful Victoria Street has yet another moneymaker opening its doors this month: Knoops. The chain has slowly grown across the UK after opening its doors in Rye, East Sussex in 2013. This glossy new outlet is one of two for the brand to open, almost simultaneously, with its New Town counterpart.
This overtly customisable, oddly technical hot chocolate shop offers over 20 different cocoa blends – a “carefully curated percentage menu” ranging from a 28 per cent light white chocolate to a brash 100 per cent Philippine cocoa. The store offers the usual coffees on its menu, but Knoops’ hot chocolate is the clear selling point.
I opted to try the 28 per cent white chocolate, of which a small sized cup would set you back £3.75 – one of the most affordable options on the menu. In fact, prices for the Mexican 66 per cent and Venezuelan 60 per cent will set you back £6.95 at regular size. Unique customisability is at the forefront of this otherwise sickly-sweet menu. Free additions include: sea salt, black pepper, star anise, cardamom and Szechuan pepper, whilst at 50p each you can opt to add anything from rosemary to lavender, orange or lime and many more.
So there we have it; a cardamom and sea salt infused (Maldon sea salt, in fact) white hot chocolate now totalling £4.25. And oddly, this weird combination really shone. If you’re ever in need of paying above the odds to soothe your weird cravings, Knoops might be the place to be.
Whilst we only tried two options on our visit, mainly to protect our wallets and integrity, there are a good few combinations we would suggest trying: a dark chocolate hot chocolate made with coconut milk – think blue quality street! Or black pepper, rosemary, thyme, and sea salt – we’re thinking roast potatoes? We’ll let you try that one, though.
“Hot Chocolate” by oatsy40 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.