The UK's most over the top chocolate store re-opens, with a single bar costing up to £350.
The transformation of the Chocolate Hall, the fourth and final one of Harrods' famous Food Halls to be refurbished, is a ‘landmark moment’ in the store’s £300m store restoration programme, according to André Lewis, Head of Food, Wine and Spirits at Harrods. “We have been selling chocolate since 1870 and records show that by 1902 we were already making our own chocolate in Knightsbridge, which makes the Chocolate Hall central to the Harrods story and our heritage.”
A single 50g bar of To’ak’s Guayasamin Art Series chocolate in the new look Chocolate Hall will set you back an eye-watering £350. To’ak is reputed to produce the world’s most expensive chocolate and Harrods, of course, has the UK exclusive.
However, mere mortals will be pleased to be reminded that Harrods’ motto is ‘Omnia Omnibus Ubique’ - all things for all people, everywhere. When the Chocolate Hall reopens to the public today, there really will be something for everybody, from chocolate coins right up to three-year-aged chocolate produced from rare Ecuadorian heirloom cacao (that would be the To’ak).
The room’s beating heart is the Chocolaterie, a ‘theatre of chocolate’ where chocolate is made in full view by Harrods’ brigade of pâtissiers and chocolatiers, among whose number a previous UK World Chocolate Master winner in Head Pastry Chef Alastair Birt. This is experiential retail for the modern luxury consumer, a multi-sensory approach that emphasises the sights and smells, tastes and textures that make you want to unwrap a bar on the spot.