There are few things better on a brisk Melbourne evening than a cup of hot chocolate. Winning the Lord Mayor’s Small Business of the Year award might be one of them. Now, Mörk Chocolate can tell you about both.
Mörk Chocolate, a purveyor of high-quality hot chocolate, solid chocolate, and other premium cocoa products, last week earned top honours at the City of Melbourne’s small business awards night.
The business, which operates four cafes across the city centre, the Queen Victoria Market, and North Melbourne, was recognised for its contributions to the city’s vibrant laneway culture.
Finalists were also judged on their ability to navigate challenges, their commitments to sustainability, and care for their customers and staff.
“We felt absolutely thrilled,” said chocolatier Josefin Zernell, who co-founded Mörk Chocolate alongside husband and barista Kiril Shaginov.
“We’ve been a business for 12 years, we’re a husband and wife team, and we’ve gone through all the ups and downs of running small business, growing small a business, pandemics and whatnot,” she told SmartCompany.
“So I think this was just a pretty big moment, because it celebrates the wins and the losses.”
Beyond its four retail outposts, Mörk Chocolate also operates a thriving wholesale business serving hot chocolate to cafes across the country.
The multi-faceted nature of the business may have elevated its perception among the judges, Zernell said.
“We are this manufacturer in Melbourne, the City of Melbourne, which is quite unique: I can tell you, there’s not a lot of chocolate factories in this little city,” she said.
“I think was one of the biggest things, the fact that we touch so many businesses every day as a wholesale supplier as well to cafes — cafes being a really strong point for Melbourne as well.”
With sustainability a key criteria for the award, Zernell pointed to the launch of Mörk Chocolate’s new cacao tea, which repurposes cacao bean shells that are usually discarded in the chocolate-making process.
Perhaps the most compelling factor in its favour was the opening of its new Centre Place location, which occupies a key position in one of the city’s most beloved laneways.
“Even when I was a new Melburnian, and when I just got here, I would have walked through this laneway,” said Zernell, who is originally from Sweden.
“I remember coming through there and seeing little cafes, and people sitting on tiny tables on the streets eating and drinking.
“And it is just one of those places that you remember, and that speaks of Melbourne so broadly.
“So moving in there was good — here is a really beautiful local culture in that laneway.”
The outpost is “already a go-to spot for city workers and visitors,” Lord Mayor Nick Reece said in a statement.
Zernell said the new Centre Place location will offer gourmet tasting events and experiences, showcasing the complexity and quality of artisinal cacao products.
That kind of outreach may be necessary for gourmet producers like Mörk Chocolate, given the economic factors driving up the cost of raw cacao.
Key global cacao-growing regions have endured poor seasons back-to-back-to-back, causing shortages and surging prices on the commodity market.
This has translated to increased costs for producers like Mörk Chocolate, which already endured significant input cost growth in 2023.
“The increases this year took a really dramatic turn,” Zernell continued.
“So we’ve seen some of our prices have gone up 200% over the past few months.”
The business is “wearing a lot of it at the moment”, but “there will come a time where chocolate will become much more of a luxury product than it already,” she added.
Zernell believes the Centre Place location — along with diminishing quality among mass-market chocolate brands — could help change perceptions about what good chocolate actually is, making it easier for discerning consumers to understand rising prices.
The brand is planning a tasting event for early August, where gourmet chocolate will be paired with cheeses from world-class Adelaide fromagerie Smelly Cheese Co, with more events to follow.
“I think that little tasting room is going to create a new space for people to explore and experience chocolate as not just a sweet, a condiment, or a confectionary, but to experience it as something that is truly magical,” Zernell said.
According to the Lord Mayor and the judging panel, there’s already a bit of magic happening in the city’s laneways — and in cups of hot chocolate.
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Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
