Let's start with the basics. How do you pronounce the name of the new luxury chocolate shop and cafe on Cross Street?
Knoops, the brand which prides itself on being a purveyor of 'expertly crafted chocolate drinks', is pronounced 'kuh' like huh and 'noops' like hoops, but its founder Jens Knoop doesn't mind how you say it, after all he's heard many variations since first launching the brand ten years ago.
"Knoop is a Dutch word and it means button - and we use chocolate buttons so it's very playful," he tells me as we sit down for a hot chocolate at the newly opened site. "I like to say that given my last name, It was meant to be before I was even born - I really don't mind how people say it, as long as they come back for more," he smiles.
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And he needn't worry, since launching the luxury chocolate brand ten years ago, it's amassed a strong legion of followers, allowing him to open several sites in London, as well as Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge. The Manchester site is the 10th in the portfolio and the first in the North of England.
Jens has had a strong relationship with chocolate since his childhood in rural Germany, eventually pursuing that passion and opening the first Knoops in Rye, East Sussex in 2013. Building a strong team of chocolate lovers around him, he's gone on to develop an at-home range of chocolate flakes, and even released a chocolate cookbook.
Inside the new Cross Street spot, which has been given a minimalist design aesthetic featuring terrazzo flooring, a polished black tile counter and a neutral colour palette, the shop's expert team of 'Knoopologists' await to give you a helping hand selecting your drink from the extensive menu hanging behind the counter.
Offering warming hot chocolates and mochas as well as decadent milkshakes and iced chocolates, Knoops unique selling point the number of different varieties on offer. As Jens explains: "We want to help people make the perfect chocolate drink, so we have 22 varieties in a number of different percentages, ranging from 28 percent white chocolate to 100 percent extra dark chocolate from the Solomon Islands.
"In between we have a 39 percent option Single Origin from Ecuador and a 73 percent Single Origin from the Philippines. Then we have a whole range of milks, including plant-based options which we're not charging extra for, because we want to be accommodating as possible.
"To finish, we have a host of ingredients to add on top, so extras like chilli, fresh orange slice, rosemary and our world famous marshmallows, which are gigantic."
It's all part of what Jens calls the 'Knoopology', a sort of chocolate ideology if you will, which starts with picking out your drink and chocolate percentage and ends with a selection of fresh herbs, fruits and spices to really pimp out your drink. Once the four steps are completed, the drink is poured out as a smooth hot chocolate, or over cold milk and ice for iced chocolate. The drink can also be blended with ice cream, for a delicious milkshake.
Hot chocolates and iced chocolates using 54 percent chocolate or above can be made vegan, and the giant marshmallows added to the drinks are also available as a vegan option too.
Does Jens have a preference? "That's a very tricky question, but this morning I had a 43 percent milk chocolate blend - it reminds me of childhood and because it's single origin it has a slight taste of hazelnut. And later, I'll switch back to a slightly darker chocolate because it has other stimulants, which gives you a boost."
Jens had what he describes as a chocolate-fuelled childhood, so it was only a matter of time before he channelled that love for the sweet stuff into a fully fledged business. "I'm blaming my grandmother for that because if I had been well behaved I would get a chocolate treat. Usually I would sit in a big armchair and my grandmother would bring me over some milk chocolate in a plastic tray, I can vividly remember it."
As well as coffees, mochas and teas and coffees, the Knoops' stores also stock bakery items to accompany sweet treats - and the ones in Manchester are sourced from popular Ancoats bakery, Pollen. Lining the glass cabinet you'll find everything from croissants and brownies to cannolis and cupcakes.
For those that want to recreate the Knoops experience at home, the shop and website also sells the ingredients, appliances and recipe books. "Very often tourists come into the store, and they don't know when they're going to be back so they might want to take some things home or buy a gift for someone, so we have a range of about 12 different chocolates which people can buy."
As well as its Manchester site, Knoops has been busy opening stores in Knightsbridge and Bath, as part of its strategy to 'do for chocolate drinks what Starbucks did for coffee'. They're also planning on opening 100 new UK stories in the next five years.
"We're looking to open 15 stores by the end of summer, and we're definitely looking at more options in the North of England," says Jens. "It's going to be a busy few months for us for sure."
Knoops Manchester is now open and is located at 68 Cross St, Manchester M2 4JQ. They're open seven days a week, from 8am to 9pm.
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