Awfully Chocolate was launched in Singapore eleven years ago. First established in Taipei, the Awfully Chocolate territory is now spread across Jakarta, Beijing, Shanghai, South Korea, Tokyo, Sidney and Dubai. Awfully Chocolate does not display its product in a fridge, a particular yet specific difference it makes to set itself apart from its competitors.

With a desire to be seen as the ‘good neighbour’, each of the Awfully Chocolate is built with a concept which takes into consideration the shop’s immediate environment. The Hysan Avenue shop (Hong Kong) is a tribute to the iconic Lee Theatre, with mesmerizing cinema-inspired interior design; the latest shop situated on Caine Road (named after Captain William Caine, a 19th Century figure in Hong Kong police) , takes ‘prison’ as its theme. Captain William Caine is known for keeping the neighbours watched as well as being responsible for sentencing guilty criminals into the prison, therefore known as ‘the big man (dai yun)’ at the time. The Awfully Chocolate Caine Road shop is quirky yet lighthearted — fitted with just one seat hung from the wall, its window covered with metal rods.

The spacious Awfully Chocolate shop offers authentic flavours with its three signature handmade cakes — All Chocolate, Chocolate Banana and Chocolate Rum & Cherry. A limited edition of sixty cakes was made to these ten-year-old recipes each day when the Causeway Bay shop first opened — they were sold out in two hours ‘record time’. A new addition, dark chocolate ice cream ‘Hei’, is now added to the finely-edited menu. With less than fourteen percent air, the ice cream is, literally, a ‘smooth operator’.

Text: Carmen Lee | Translation: dilettante
Photo: Kimio Ng
Update: 3 Jul 2009

AWFULLY CHOCOLATE
Shop B & C, G/F, 39 – 41 Caine Road, Central, Hong Kong.
www.awfullychocolate.com