Cocoa Central, Commercial Road, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 1DF (View on map)
The bright colours of the bench I sat on, this was all along one wall and had many more colours on it.
We drove to Swanage via the chain link ferry from Poole and there was a striking brightly coloured advert for a chocolate shop and cafe on the ferry that caught my eye. I thought I would need to check it out. When we got to Swanage the first sign I saw was the sign directing us to the cafe and we made our way there before going anywhere else, but as it doesn’t do meals as such (and R was on his quest for a prawn mayo baguette) we ended up in Earthlights instead. So, after Earthlights and a wander round looking at the sea, I suggested we go back to Chococo.
The shop and cafe appealed to me for a number of reasons and you may be surprised to find that the chocolate wasn’t the main reason it appealed so much. It was the colour that made me want to go in. The road which Chococo is in had bright bunting in the shop colours, and inside was seating painted in stripes in the shop colours and so on. I liked the joyful brightness of the place. The second reason was of course the chocolate.
A close up of R's Deluxe hot chocolate.
There may not be any main meals on the menu and in fact I don’t remember anything savoury being on the menu at all, but there was still a lot to choose from. I asked for advice from the waitress, who said that it was all very good but did recommend a couple of things. I went for one of her suggestions: a cranberry and white chocolate brownie. R went for the Deluxe hot chocolate. My tea of choice was an Earl Grey.
When it arrived, R’s hot chocolate was very impressive. It had whipped Dorset cream, mini marshmallows and mini chocolate malt balls and came in a cereal bowl. All the crockery we got served was Emma Bridgewater, another reason I liked this cafe. My tea came on it’s own little tray (with a chocolate) and my chocolate brownie was very good and very strong. The chocolate that came with my tea was amazing. I definitely recommend their chocolate. They even have their own recipe book with all the good things in (including the brownie that I tried).
Tea, brownie and Deluxe hot chocolate at Chococo. Note the dotty crockery and that R has already demolished quite a bit of his hot chocolate despite it only being on our table for half a minute (good thing I took the close up photo as soon as it arrived).
I tried to get R to go back again the next day, but he’s just not that into chocolate. I’d happily go back now.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but all the teas were Clipper teabags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.50 for the tea, £3.55 for the Deluxe hot chocolate, not sure how much the brownie was – perhaps £2 something?
Cake? Muffins, brownies, cookies, cake biscuits, chocolates, ice cream, fondue (with the widest range of things to dip in it I’ve ever seen on a menu – they even had trifle fingers listed), hot chocolate that came with bits of orange covered in chocolate, milkshakes and chocolate chip scones (if I had spotted them before I ordered my brownie I would have tried one of those).
Go again? Yes, yes, yes.
Tea for you and me 