Today, in an Australian first, Mörk is set to open a brew house dedicated entirely to the art of liquid chocolate. Since launching in 2012 the company has firmly established a reputation as the Cacao Artisans of Melbourne, supplying small-batch drinking chocolate to cafes such as Proud Mary Coffee, St Ali. and Seven Seeds. From March 5, Mörk will continue putting chocolate on the map with their new concept store on Errol Street in North Melbourne.
With the help of interior designer Danielle Oerman, Mörk founders Kiril Shaginov and Josefin Zernell have converted a 1950s bakery warehouse into a 16-seat sensory experience.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into every single piece that has gone in there,” says Zernell, who is originally from Sweden, which explains the Scandinavian influence throughout.
As for the liquid chocolate, connoisseurs can expect a menu of 12 beverages plus a couple of junior-friendly options. “We are also finding lots of different ways of presenting chocolate that doesn’t necessarily need milk. In fact without adding it at all, we can better highlight the characters of the pure origin cacao,” says Zernell.
Menu highlights include the Breakfast Chocolate with house-made oat milk, dark chocolate and cinnamon, as well as a refreshing single-origin Chocolate Soda. The Campfire Chocolate (see video below) is set to be a favourite; customers will lift a reversed, stemless wineglass to release smoke, before pouring the dark hot chocolate over the smoke and finishing it with smoked salt. It also comes with a grilled marshmallow on a stick, for added nostalgia.
There’s no coffee or food menu – it’s chocolate only here. Some small nibbles called Sweet Objects are specifically designed to complement the liquid chocolates, such as malt cookies, tiny bread loaves with dark chocolate spread, blue cheese profiteroles and burnt butter ganache. The workshop out the back will be used to roast cacao beans to craft pure chocolate, refined with custom-built, small-batch equipment for bean-to-cup craft chocolate making.
“We always had a quest to take drinking chocolate further and expand people’s mindset about it,” says Zernell. “Everyone grows up with sweet hot chocolate from childhood, and we want to push the boundaries. If we could get as excited about drinking chocolate now as when we were kids, wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing? We plan to take chocolate drinking in Melbourne to a new level, focusing on the sensory experience, unexpected flavours and forms.”
Campfire Chocolate
150 Errol Street, North Melbourne