London’s Best Chocolate Shops

Let’s face it. You can’t go wrong with chocolate, whether you’re looking for the perfect gift or if you want to indulge yourself. And you’ll find the perfect sweet treat in one of London’s highly seductive chocolate shops. Cadbury’s is great, obvs, but these places raise the bar for cacao, offering everything from purist-pleasing super-dark chocs to sugary white varieties, in the form of truffles, slabs, bars and all kinds of innovative, artful creations. If you’re cocoa nuts, these are your temples and London’s chocolatiers are your gods.

London’s best chocolate shops

Artisan du Chocolat

As you might guess from the name, the people behind this high-end mini chain take chocolate very seriously. Billed as ‘adventurers in fine cocoa’, they produce their own stuff from ground beans, rather than buying in couverture (high-quality processed chocolate) from elsewhere. The standard range is excellent (salted caramels, boozy truffles, honeycomb bites, cleverly filled ‘thins’ and pistachio pearls) and there are seasonal treats and designs for occasions such as Halloween. We also love the options for people on special diets – including sugar-free bars, chocolates made from buffalo milk, and veggie specialities such as strawberry-coated mallows. There’s a boutique in Chelsea plus an outlet in Selfridges.

Charbonnel et Walker

We can thank Edward VII for bringing Madame Charbonnel and Mrs Walker together back in 1875, and there’s still a kind of magic about their vintage shop on Bond Street’s elegant Royal Arcade. Cue lashings of Victorian nostalgia in the shape of their drawing room and grand ballroom collections (inspired by noble houses of the period), as well as seasonal treats such as vanilla raspberries or ‘chorus line crackers’ filled with sea salt caramel and praline. Best of all are its speciality truffle boxes, with flavours ranging from Chase vodka and rhubarb, Sipsmith gin and afternoon tea to iconic Pink Marc de Champagne. Otherwise, Charbonnel is rightly known for its 70 percent dark hot chocolate. As well as the Bond Street flagship, there are outlets in Canary Wharf and Broadgate and you can also buy C&W chocolates in Selfridges and Harrods.

Dark Sugars

You’ll smell Dark Sugars before you see it. The scent of Ghanaian cocoa beans wafts up Brick Lane, making it nigh on impossible not to pop your head round the door. Mounds of uncut truffle shards are heaped into mango leaf bowls or piled on cherry wood stands, ready to be bought as pick-and-mix boxes or individual items. Flavours are kaleidoscopic, from choc-overdose truffles to more leftfield tastes like cinnamon cider or Irish kiss pipette with a squirt of Baileys on top.

DeRosier

Residential Southfields is lucky to have this smart but friendly chocolate shop and café selling elegant handmade treats as well as tennis-themed morsels for the Wimbledon crowd. DeRosier’s fresh chocs are currently produced using single-origin couvertures from Venezuela and Peru, with a choice of approachable flavours such as passion fruit, hazelnut praline or sea-salted caramel. We also love the bars wrapped up in colourful prints and novelties such as chocolate phones. If you want to linger, sit down with a cup of artisan coffee or one of its hot chocolate beverages, made with pieces of single-origin chocolate scooped straight from the tub and steamed with plenty of milk. It also serves a limited selection of cakes, brownies and sandwiches. Also in Earlsfield.

Le Jeune Chocolatiers

The chocolatiers of the title are Ivan and Harika Le Jeune, who spent 14 years learning their trade in Geneva before opening this little shop, café and workshop in Covent Garden back in 2013. They produce everything in a bespoke basement below the store, and their handcrafted chocs are all about quality, innovation and attention to detail (inherited from their Swiss mentors). We adore their artisan bars (especially the blackberry and strawberry version), as well as their pralines, truffles, slabs and novelties ranging from hand-painted ‘goose eggs’ filled with sweet goodies to festive chocolate log cabins and even a choc-filled mini pool table complete with a wooden hammer for smashing. You can quiz the chefs about recipes or just sit down with one of their legendary hot chocolates – made fresh with milk, pure chocolate and nothing more.