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Velvet Revolution:
How Hotel Chocolat Is
Re-writing Britain’s Café Script
Born from the bold vision of Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris in 1993, Hotel Chocolat isn’t just a chocolatier – it’s a radical rethink of what chocolate can be. This British brand launched with a simple but disruptive mission: make chocolate thrilling, make it ethical, and above all, make it real. With a ‘more cocoa, less sugar’ mantra, they ditched the syrupy sweetness of mass-market treats in favour of bold, authentic flavours rooted in the richness of high-quality cacao.
The drinks menu reads like a love letter to cacao: eighteen flavours, from Salted Caramel & Clementine to Pecan-Cinnamon, available steaming, iced, or blitzed into a viscous ‘choc shake.’ Dairy, oat, almond, or coconut milks are on tap; whipped cream and cacao nibs are optional but rarely declined. It’s indulgence with a grown-up backbone.
But the drink is only half the story. A quiet bakery revolution is rising in Yorkshire, where the upper floors of the Leeds Trinity branch have been transformed into a pastry lab. Crownies (that’s brownie-cookie hybrids), cacao-laced croissants, and Caribbean-spiced savoury pasties are emerging from the ovens and finding their way into cafés from Harrogate to Ilkley – proof that the Velvetiser format is evolving from ‘liquid treat’ to a full-day food concept.
Recent visits have shown how this vision is playing out on the ground: in Bishop’s Stortford, the ever-welcoming Vikkie and Kerry served up warmth and charm alongside molten cacao, while the much-talked-about new Manchester store – already drawing a loyal crowd – is high on our list for a future trip.
From its early days as an online retailer to a full-blown lifestyle brand with boutiques, cafés, restaurants, and even a boutique hotel on its own cacao farm in St. Lucia, Hotel Chocolat has grown with purpose. Its founding values – originality, authenticity, and ethics – still guide every decision, from bean to bar. Supporting this evolution is a smart use of technology: Hotel Chocolat has been utilising the extensibility of Enactor, a unified commerce platform tailored for hospitality businesses. Enactor powers everything from point of sale to inventory management, helping streamline operations while enhancing customer experiences across retail, café and takeaway.
And now, that ethos is being poured – quite literally – into mugs.
Standing on Winchester High Street, the new Hotel Chocolat café looks less like a sugary pit-stop and more like the set of a Scandi art-house film: pared-back timber, low lighting, the faint thrum of neo-soul. But the star isn’t the décor, it’s the hulking chrome Velvetiser on the counter – spinning shards of 70% cacao into liquid velvet
What began as a countertop gadget for homebodies has evolved into a full-fledged hospitality format. As of mid-2025, Hotel Chocolat operates 147 stores across the UK, with 68 featuring Velvetiser Cafés – an increase from 59 cafés in 2024. By the end of 2025, the company plans to open an additional 25 locations, bringing the total to 172 stores, with approximately 79 expected to include cafés. This expansion is part of a broader strategy to enhance customer experience and drive growth, especially noteworthy during a period when many retailers are focusing on cost-cutting and consolidation.
At the heart of it all is a belief: Britain’s caffeine fatigue is real. Rather than chase pricey stand-alone café locations, Hotel Chocolat is embedding its Velvetiser Cafés inside existing retail footprints. The result? Intimate, stylish sanctuaries where customers can sink into a leather booth and regroup with something rich, warming, and made with purpose.
And there’s serious backing behind the vision. Since being acquired by Mars in late 2023, Hotel Chocolat has received a £10 million investment into its Cambridgeshire factory and plans to create 200 new high-street jobs. Yet, despite the muscle, the cafés remain refreshingly low-key – no screaming logos, no corporate gloss. Just baristas in chocolate-brown aprons guiding customers through cacao percentages like they’re fine wines.
Coffee culture taught us to wear our lattes like lifestyle statements. Two decades later, Hotel Chocolat is quietly offering an alternative: slow down, unplug, and savour something unapologetically rich. Whether that’s self-care or just smart indulgence is up to you. Either way, the revolution is being stirred, not shaken – one silky mug at a time.
