How Knoops is raising the bar for craft chocolate beverages

Founded by Jens Knoop in 2013, Knoops’ sophisticated take on drinking chocolate is resonating strongly with UK consumers and saw the brand secure a sweet $10m from investors in late 2023. CEO William Gordon-Harris speaks to World Coffee Portal about why he believes Knoops can disrupt the coffee shop category and become a billion-dollar global brand

The UK branded coffee shop market has never been more diverse, and today a small, but growing number of non-coffee specialists are innovating the retail café space with bubble tea, chai – and drinking chocolate.

Keen to develop a childhood obsession with chocolate for a mature audience, German-born Jens Knoop opened the first Knoops (pronounced k-noops) store in East Sussex in 2013, selling a range of single-origin chocolate beverages sourced from around the world.