HOT CHOCOLATE MAGIC

BY MATT BAILEY

Mörk are one of the most intriguing brands working in chocolate. Founded in Melbourne by Josephin Zernell and her husband Kiril, they are trailblazers in transforming how Australians approach hot chocolate. Josephin, who I sat down with for this interview, is on a flavour-led quest like nothing else, and is bringing a whole new level of appreciation to chocolate.

Read on…

MATT BAILEY: So, I just wanted to start by asking where it all began for you with Mörk. You’re the co-founder, so tell me the story of this all beginning?

JOSEFIN ZERNELL: Well I moved here to Australia from Sweden about 14 years ago. Together with my now husband Kiril, he’s a barista and I’m a chocolate maker and the dream was to shape how people approach chocolate differently.

MB: And he didn’t convince you to put a coffee machine into your chocolate bar?

JZ: Haha no, well he asked for it and I said no haha. And when we opened here in North Melbourne 8 years ago, it was quite unusual to not have a coffee machine in a cafe or such. So, we were never really a cafe that way. We didn’t have tea. We didn’t have coffee, or soft drinks. Everything was chocolate on the menu. So, that was quite unusual, especially 11 years ago when this business all kicked off. I guess we came to Australia with an idea of, you know, exploring the city and the cafe offering that was here. The coffee scene was at its peak in Melbourne thanks to the likes of Market Lane, Seven Seeds etc, plus a lot of roasteries around the area.

So, when this began, so I think for us it was a really exciting city to live in. I’ve been a coffee roaster as well, so I’ve got a coffee roasting background.

MB: But mainly chocolate.

JZ: It’s been chocolate all my life. Coffee roasting was a little side a year outside of like a gap here for me. So, we both came from coffee to chocolate. And discovering just how good coffee was here, but just how poorly chocolate was treated. It was bit of a shock to the system. I came from Sweden and in Sweden we’ve got quite a respect for dark chocolate. We’re not known for chocolate in Sweden, not like Belgium or Switzerland. But Swedes are really caring for pure ingredients, organic ingredients, and just quality.

And it’s always been a dark chocolate appreciation which has been very quickly growing, especially 11 years ago, a very fast growing market in Sweden. So while the Belgians, the Swiss, the French, and the Italians were all eating Swedish chocolate and were very well known for their rich Belgian-style drinking chocolates in Sweden. We kept on making more and more dark chocolate. So, following the trends in Sweden, what I really cared for was the dark chocolate. So, when we arrived here and we just realised, you know what, we just need to, we need, we need to bring that that culture here because it simply didn’t exist.

We found that Australia was very European influenced, but definitely not Scandinavian influenced, so we thought we’ll bring our strength to the table and we opened Mörk.

The word Mörk in Swedish means dark.

So we started on 70% cocoa and people told us we’re crazy. You NEED a milk chocolate. The 70% is too dark and bitter, you need to start on something sweet. And we just said no. We’re just going to do it the way that we want. We’re not going to compromise. We’re going to do it the way we like to drink it and hope that other people are enjoying the same. And ultimately, we found there are other people like us out there!

MB: That was sort of a lightbulb moment for Mörk then?

JZ: Absolutely. Australia is still such a young dining/drinking culture, when it comes to eating and drinking but it’s easier to make an impression and to create a new way of approaching things. Very open-minded.

So, we have the freedom to create a new culture and I think that’s exciting. So, while there’s been a lot of European influence, we thought, well, we create the Australian salt and chocolate and set that benchmark and see where we can go with that and build on it. And so we began by supplying cafes with our 70% dark chocolate and that kept on going for us for, you know, a good few years we started out working in front of people while we were still setting up the business and doing a bit here and there of supplying together.

It was an approach of until we fail, we’ll just take a leap and we’ll be able to stop working for other people. We’ll just do our thing, and we’ll go for it.

MB: And was this your first location here on Errol St, North Melbourne?

“WE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO CREATE A NEW CULTURE AND I THINK THAT’S EXCITING. SO, WHILE THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF EUROPEAN INFLUENCE, WE THOUGHT, WELL, WE CREATE THE AUSTRALIAN SALT AND CHOCOLATE AND SET THAT BENCHMARK AND SEE WHERE WE CAN GO WITH THAT AND BUILD ON IT.”

JZ: Yes!. So we started here in 2015. Mörk started as a business in 2012, but opened our physical venue here in 2015.

MB: What was your vision here with Mörk? What were you looking to improve?

JZ: I saw a trade that had no consideration for how hot chocolate was being served. We started working with baristas and retrained them to serve is because what we saw was just chocolate and milk served in a warm latte glass with very little care behind it. There was no consideration for it.

So, we said, why don’t you steam it with thermometer or keep a good temperature 65 degrees. Whisk it before you steam it. Really emulsify it. A few core things always served in a cup where you got thick walls and the mug, so you can really like, sit on it and drink it hot, not cool.

A few of these things, putting that in place, working with baristas, they started drinking the chocolate for the first time, because all of a sudden it looked interesting to them. Before that it was just an inconveniently ordered sugary drink. But now I was actually turning this into a drink that represented a new and complete representation of the same things that they stood for in their coffee with the roasteries with their coffee. Really focusing in on the flavour.

So, it started spreading throughout the city in Melbourne. We suddenly found we had built up a network of hundreds of new accounts and hundreds new companies that were serving it, which was great.

We eventually then opened up a little branch in the UK, so in London to an office there, and one in Tokyo. Things started getting really busy and just like the desire for our campfire chocolate drink, it caught on and it just spread like wildfire. Every market is different, and our customers definitely take different approaches to new products, and serving chocolate. Especially different in Japan where we now have distribution as well. In Japan, they’re very respectful of the recipes, respectful all of the serving suggestions, and they love the product.

MB: How do you approach the flavour side?

JZ: So I’ve been doing creative work in chocolate since I started in chocolate, around 20 years ago. So for me, it’s always about staying curious and I’m always excited about creating new flavour experiences, whether it’s a little praline or whether it’s in a bar or whether it’s in a drink.

MB: You sound like a whisky distiller already, obsessed with flavour.

JZ: Well I was actually going to be a sommelier many many years ago, but I never followed through with it. So I’m I’ve always been super interested in all flavours, like in, in spirits and tequila and wine.

And like I’ve always had that interest, that’s still spread over all drinking culture.

But I think when I approached it and we used to have three columns or even 4 on the menu at some point where I named them sort of your house chocolates, signatures, adventures, and our single origin ideas.

So, the adventures range would have things like you could have never tried before. Firstly, an everyday chocolate that anyone can have anytime of the day without feeling heavy or sort of way down or like you have to go and have a nap after it’s full of cream and sugar.

MB: You’re essentially creating something that’s more about the cacao and more about the flavour.

JZ: It’s always just about the cacao flavour and the quality, but then also having met creating drinks that are super crisp and lean that are refreshing that you would never expect from a chocolate. We had a soda on the menu at some point that we served as a chocolate sauce we topped with sparkling water and it fizzed up on pour. We’ve had so many different things on the menu. We even did a serve for a night time event. A campfire hot chocolate, but it’s served with a little whisky gum. So we did a little jelly, basically, but with beautiful single malt whiskey in it. And you basically put it on your tongue and it melts away.

You have your hot chocolate with it and let that melt and you get that beautiful like flavour building through that melting in your mouth. So, for me, there are some really clear pairings that work really well, and one of those things is whisky.

And then there’s the things that we do that are outside of the box right now we’ve got because we roast so much cacao at our little chocolate factory.

We also love working with the cacao husks: It’s a generally discarded byproduct of the chocolate making process, but we don’t have the heart to just discard it. We want to do something with it, so we’ll be giving it to a lot of beer breweries. That way brewers can make concept beers with it, and we can also create things like in-house cocktails. It’s very rewarding and sustainable to be able to transform that husk into something that still contains so much flavour. If we’re shipping 100% of the cacao bean over to Australia, then losing something like 30% of it in the husk, that’s a lot of potential waste. Being able to sustainably re-purpose these husks is great.

MB: Where do you want to see drinking chocolate culture change in Australia?

JZ: It first comes from an understanding that it’s not just a ‘kids drink’ and it’s not just a after dinner drink either. It’s something that we can enjoy anytime during the day. It’s also about creating an amazing chocolate experience that just really pops in the glass. Something like our campfire chocolate experience: it really excites the senses and infuses the room.

Our olfactory senses carry our strongest memories, and we form and hold those memories before even visual memories, so even just a whiff of campfire smoke can then reignite memories that in the back of our heads from many years ago.

And so, every person will have slightly different experience with it and some may not have the same, you know, strong experience, but some will, some will just sit here and go “Oh my goodness”.

That campfire smoke reminds me of being with my family out in the wilderness, having that marshmallow with the fire and the smoke is just igniting them on a stick. Amazing moments that we recall which I love bringing to life through flavour.

So when people come to Mörk, and especially in this quiet environment, just sitting down and having that experience can often awaken memories where they didn’t expect it.

MB: So how do you recommend people replicate this memory experience at home with your Mörk tubs?

JZ: So we had these sets that people went crazy for, especially through Covid, which included the chocolates, the liquid smoke, the cherry wood, and a little bottle in each one. We are out of stock at the moment, and are looking to recreate it somehow, but you don’t need much to recreate that experience at home. People just got to have a date night and do something like that together.

MB: Fantastic. Well I think we should taste some SMWS whiskies, some Mörk creations, and see how these pairings work together?

JZ: I love whisky, and I love finding flavours to work with, so let’s give it a go. We should do an event for your members I think!

MB: (Watch this space…)

A huge thanks to Josephin Zernell for her time and tasting of goodies at Mörk. I can safely say I’ve never had hot chocolate like this before, and I’ve certainly never had clarified cocoa husk juice before, but I have now!