Luxury chocolatier and cacao grower Hotel Chocolat brings an immersive new chapter of chocolate to Manchester, as it opens its doors on a two-floor concept store on Cross Street.
Blending café culture, immersive storytelling, and ethical cacao farming, the new store offers a multi- sensory experience designed to bring guests closer to the roots – and joy – of chocolate.
Set across two beautifully curated floors, this unique space brings together cacao innovation and discovery. From a molten chocolate tap to a curated flight of drinking chocolates, the new concept is a place to explore, relax, and reconnect over chocolate. In collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University’s Design & Illustration students, the store also showcases original artwork interpreting the cacao journey – from the sun-drenched Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia to the beating heart of Manchester.
What Manchester shoppers can expect:
- Cacao Cam: Step inside and be instantly transported to the brand’s Saint Lucian cacao farm. Through a looping “live style” video feed viewed through a telescope and three immersive sound buttons featuring the island’s tree frogs, crickets, and national Saint Lucian parrot, guests are invited to connect more deeply with the origin of the chocolate they love.
- Agroforestry Wall: Located behind the café, this striking layered installation brings the biodiversity of cacao-growing environments to life. Illustrating the nature-positive principles of agroforestry, the wall educates guests on how cacao thrives when grown alongside nature – a reflection of the brand’s gentle farming ethos.
- Velvetiser – Create Your Own Box: Choose from a curated library of drinking chocolate flavours and build your own personalised box – the only place in the UK to do so.
Whether it’s to elevate your Velvetiser station at home or as a thoughtful gift, the experience allows guests to hand-pick favourites or discover something new.
- The Social Table: A warm and inviting centrepiece for sampling and connection. Designed
to spark conversation, guests can explore tasting notes, engage with team members, and discover the stories behind their favourite chocolates. Inspired by the molten flow of chocolate, every curve of the table tells a tale of craftsmanship.
- Wall of Chocolate: Explore over 100 house-crafted chocolate recipes, all made with Hotel Chocolat’s house-grade cacao and authentic ingredients. With a 3 for £14 mix-and- match offer, guests can curate the perfect treat or gift. Interactive digital screens guide newcomers via the popular Love Match quiz, making exploration even easier.
- Exhibition Space: Downstairs offers a versatile, design-led space where guests can relax, collect online orders, or attend immersive events from cacao storytelling to hands-on chocolate tempering. Featuring revolving cacao pods, soundscapes from Rabot Estate, and interactive screens, it’s where the bean-to-bar journey comes vividly to life.
- Velvetiser Café & Chocolate Tap Experiences: Serving the brand’s signature drinking chocolates, decadent bakes, and exclusive café creations, the Velvetiser Café is the go-to spot. Products are made fresh by Hotel Chocolat’s Boar Lane Bakery and Artisan Bakery, with exclusive items available only in Manchester. Key experiences include:
o Tasting Trio: Taste your way through three drinking chocolates from a curated selection, paired with signature 70% Classic batons
o Sip & Savour: Journey through four iconic chocolates – Billionaire’s Shortbread, Dizzy Praline, Dark Truffle and Eton Mess – with a drinking chocolate of your choice
o Chocolate Shot: Pour your choice of molten chocolate – milk, caramel-milk, or dark – over a bake, Cocoa Whip or Ice Cream of the Gods. The Manchester store is home to new chocolate taps to bring extra theatre to the experience.
At the core of the Hotel Chocolat experience is its pioneering approach to ethical cacao. Guests will be invited to learn about the brand’s gentle farming model: a regenerative method of cacao growing developed at the company’s own Saint Lucian estate and how Hotel Chocolat is working to create a sustainable future for chocolate that supports both nature and farming communities.
The new store will offer seated areas for guests to relax and connect, whether enjoying a chocolate flight, tucking into an exclusive sundae, or finding their favourite chocolate based on Love Match. The store is open to the public with regular trading hours to follow.
VIP.ME members can enjoy 20% off the Velvetiser Café, by signing up to the chocolatier’s member club, which is free to join.
