I'm all about a little bit of luxe in my daily life and one of my favourite things to do is have a bit of me-time including face masks, bubble baths and delicious proper hot chocolate. I was so excited to hear that Knoops had opened a shop in Chester and they kindly invited me in to their launch day to try Knoops hot chocolate for myself and I just had to share it with you all cause this is by far the best hot chocolate I've had!
Knoops
Knoops was created by Jens Knoop and has had a strong relationship with chocolate since his childhood in Germany and opened his first Knoops shop in Essex. Since that very first shop, he's launched more locations throughout the UK, developed a range of at-home chocolate flakes, and has released a chocolate cookbook. Knoops has a carefully curated menu giving you chocolate to match every taste and mood to give you the perfect hot chocolate. All you do when you go in is choose your chocolate percentage, any extra flavours you want added and what style you want your drink made in.
Knoops Chester
At the end of November Knoops recently launched their Chester location right by the town hall and it was perfect timing cause Chester have got their Christmas market right outside the Knoops store, so you can get yourselves a delicious hot chocolate before taking a wander around the markets. I took my best friend Fliss along cause she also loves Chester and loves hot chocolates and coffee like I do. Inside Knoops Chester they've got the counter along one side as well as space for gifts, seating and even seating upstairs. Behind the counter, alongside all the drinks and flavour options that they offer, they literally have an entire menu of the different percentages of chocolate that you can opt for from 28% all the way through to 100%. Each of the different chocolate percentages has it's own particular notes which could be paired along perfectly with their flavour options which are all freshly added so if you add spice, citrus, ginger etc, they're all freshly ground before adding to your hot chocolate so it's gives such a better flavour and less artificial flavours and sweeteners.
In celebration of the new Willy Wonka film coming out on the 8th December, Knoops have partnered up with them to create the Winter Warmer hot chocolate and you can see why from the pictures. It's the Knoops best selling 34% hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and chocolate popping candy, all served in a special Wonka themed cup. I ended up going for the Winter Warmer hot chocolate which we both tried and it was absolutely delicious and the popping candy was just the perfect addition to it.
To go alongside with our hot chocolates, we decided to go for a couple of their fresh sweet treats. I can confirm these were also the perfect accompaniment for their hot chocolates. I do want to go back and try out each of the different cannoli flavours cause the hazelnut one we had was so delicious. The staff at the Chester location were all so lovely and all very knowledgable so they gave us some great percentage recommendations. We were recommended the 54% with the festive spice added in as I'm a huge fan of dark chocolate but Fliss is more about white chocolate, we both loved the combination, it was the perfect middle ground for us both.
We ended up coming away a bag of Knoop goodies including the Knoop cookbook featuring some of Jen's 40 drink and 20 food recipes, they also kindly gave us one of the chocolate shakers that you can microwave the milk in then add the chocolate flakes (which they kindly gave us some flakes to try at home) and shake for 10 seconds to make the perfect Knoops hot chocolate at home and they also kindly included some of the festive spice mix which is a mixture of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, white pepper, cardamon, and orange. Knoops have come at the perfect time at the end of November because I am all about the hot chocolates in December so you know I'm going to be well using my shaker to make Knoops hot chocolate at home as well as visiting the Chester location any time I'm in town.
Have you tried Knoops Chester yet?
Speak to you next time!
*I was kindly invited to Knoops Chester. All opinions are honest and my own.
