Koko Black

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA

The latest in the Koko Black group, the Collins Street venue is the largest and the smartest. Koko Black is a chocolate store founded by Shane Hills, who established the Suga candy company and brought the same sense of experience to chocolate. Don’t just buy it, savour it, watch it being made, feel the romance of it. This is one of the places that is building the trend of European-style dark chocolate in Australia. It’s is high-end chocolate, but an affordable luxury.

In this store, the front counter is for displaying and selling a fine range of very special handmade chocolate. Beyond are small tables and leather seating, and a bench at which to sit and watch chocolates being made. An excellent meeting place as well as somewhere for a treat, those who gather here are very diverse: men and women in suits, groups of women, mothers and grandmothers with children. Koko Black takes hot chocolate to a new and very chic level, offering chilli or cinnamon flavours, while the hot chocolate mocha is sensational. There’s also coffee and a range of teas and soft drinks.

Rita Erlich