At the heart of Knoops is founder Jens Knoop’s lifelong passion for chocolate and his belief that drinking chocolate deserves to be treated as a category in its own right. Jens grew up in rural Germay with a deep appreciation for chocolate and, in 2013, turned that passion into a business when he opened the first Knoops store in Rye, East Sussex. Having observed that chocolate drinks were often under loved, an afterthought on café menus or something reserved for high-end chocolatiers, Jens set out to create a business dedicated entirely to the art of drinking chocolate. His vision was to give people the same depth of choice, quality and personalisation in chocolate drinks that they had come to expect from coffee, while introducing them to the extraordinary diversity of chocolate and its flavour profiles. With the world’s largest drinking chocolate library, Knoops customers create their perfect chocolate drink by choosing a chocolate percentage from 28% White to 100% Extra Dark and an array of mix ins. Today, that original vision has evolved into an ambitious global beverage brand. Knoops now has 25 stores across the UK, two in the UAE and has recently opened its first U.S. store in Utah, marking the next stage of its international growth. Alongside its growing store estate, the business has built a significant retail proposition through its ‘Knoops At Home’ range of hand flaked drinking chocolates, bringing the Knoops experience into homes around the world. Last year, Knoops also invested in ‘The Flakery’ its new production and warehousing facility. Jens’ ambition remains at the heart of the business, to build a global brand that changes the way people think about chocolate and creating an entirely new world of choice, quality and discovery around chocolate drinks.