Knoops.

Knoops

The price on the board tracks the origin of the cocoa. An 80 per cent house blend is £5.80 for a regular and a 68 per cent Madagascar single origin is £7.90.4

Why go

Jens Knoop grew up in rural Germany.3 He opened his first store in Rye, East Sussex, in 2013, and since then, The Guardian reported in 2022, he has spent 10,000 hours perfecting its drinks by combining different percentage cocoas with different milks, including plant milks, as well as fruits, roots and spices.1 The company still makes in that town, with a manufacturing and packing premises on Rye Harbour Road registered to the brand.6 You order the way he worked it out: a format, then a chocolate by cocoa percentage, then a liquid from nine dairy and plant milks, then whatever goes on top. There are more than 20 percentages available hot, six of them also as iced chocolate or a milkshake.4

The percentage is the cocoa content of the chocolate being melted, so it sets how sweet the cup will be. It runs from a 28 per cent white blend up to a 100 per cent with no sugar in it at all. Six of the rungs are house blends and thirteen are named single origins, and each carries its own tasting note: the 49 per cent Venezuela reads molasses, pecan and coffee, the 73 per cent Philippines citrus, honey and caramel, the 85 per cent Colombia floral with vanilla and pepper. The blends run £5.10 to £6.50 for a regular and the single origins £6.20 to £7.90, which is where the money goes. Anything from the 38 per cent oat and the 54 per cent dark upward is vegan, and the shop says so on the menu.

This is the second of two Edinburgh shops, opened on 15 March 2024 in the unit a Starbucks left on George Street, a week after the Victoria Street one became the chain's first in Scotland.3 Jens Knoop drew the distinction himself at the time: We're also very excited to open our George Street venue which is a bigger space with seating.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: a single origin, since that is what the price is buying. The 68 per cent Madagascar is described on the menu as Vibrant and exotic with notes of raspberry and a hint of grapefruit, and the 60 per cent Venezuela as Notes of tropical fruit, walnuts & spices. Both are £7.90 for a regular.4
• Order: the 38 per cent oat, £7.60 regular. It is a formulation built for oat milk from the start, using cocoa from the Solomon Islands, and it is the only row on the ladder where the liquid decided the chocolate.
• Order cheap and dark: the 80 per cent house blend, £4.70 small and £5.80 regular. Below £6 there is nothing darker on the board.
• Order: the 100 per cent with no added sugar if you want to taste cocoa with nothing in the way. £6.50 for the blend, £7.80 for the Philippines single origin.
• Put something in it. The Guardian counted a list of 20 extras that includes Szechuan pepper, star anise, turmeric and rosemary.1 At the counter the salt, pepper and dry spices are free and the fruits, roots and herbs are 50p.4
• Avoid: reading the percentage as a strength dial. It sets sweetness, and that is the thing people get wrong at the counter.
• Avoid: coming hungry. This is drinks, vanilla soft serve at £3.85 and retail chocolate. No source describes food beyond that.

What locals & experts say

• Zoe Wood, The Guardian, March 2022, covering the rise of the format nationally, put the shop's board better than anyone: it is a menu that looks like a periodic table. Her piece also fixes a price point in time, with drinks starting around £3 and a large 100 per cent Solomon Islands at £6.20. The 100 per cent is a Philippines origin on the 2026 menu, so the roster moves.1
• Jens Knoop, in the Evening News at the Edinburgh launch, on the method he named after himself: Knoopology is the art of creating the perfect chocolate drink that combines mixing cocoas with a range of milks, fruits, roots and spices. The word is on the menu board too, over the list of things you can add.2
• No critic has published a judgment on the drink. The Evening News pieces are launch coverage and a launch write-up is not a judgment on the cup, so what exists is a documented method and a published price list, and nobody has yet written down whether the cup is any good.

Good to know

• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 26 March 2024, no re-inspection pending as at 4 August 2026. That is about 28 months ago, outside the currency bound, so the hygiene register says nothing recent about this counter.5
• Hours: 8am to 9.30pm Monday to Saturday, 9am to 9.30pm on Sunday. Seven days, and a long enough day to be both a breakfast stop and an after-dinner one.4
• Price: a regular hot chocolate is £5.10 to £7.90 and a small is £4 to £6.80. Iced runs £5.30 to £6.70 regular, milkshakes £6.40 to £7.80. Marshmallows are £1.30 and whipped cream 50p. Read on 4 August 2026 from the chain's published menu, which is not scoped to this shop, so treat per-shop variation as possible.
• Booking: none. Counter service, walk in.
• Room: vegan options, dog friendly, and there is a customer toilet.
• Operator: company-owned, and this is a chain of more than thirty shops that now trades outside the UK as well. Its own store locator listed 32 on 4 August 2026, including Belfast, Cardiff and three in the UAE.7 All twenty Knoops entities at Companies House are registered to one London address and run as one company per store, with no Scottish registration and no local operator named.
• Postcode: the hygiene register puts this shop at EH2 3DF and the brand's own site publishes EH2 3HT, which belongs to Castle Street. It is a corner unit that picked up the cross-street's code, and the hygiene register's occupancy list settles it.
• Getting there: the George Street and Castle Street corner in the New Town. Aizle is 141 m away, Panda & Sons 227 m, Lucky Liquor Co 256 m and Café St Honoré 300 m. The other Edinburgh branch is at 11-15 Victoria Street in the Old Town and is a separate room with its own hygiene record.

Verdict

could-visit — This is a 33-store chain with sites in Belfast, Cardiff and Dubai, and the shop at 106 George Street is a counter in a unit Starbucks left. It has one defensible idea and the idea holds up when you read the whole board. The number on the sign is the cocoa content of the chocolate being melted, and the price tracks the origin of that cocoa. Blends run £5.10 to £6.50 for a regular and named single origins reach £7.90, so a customer paying the top of the ladder is buying provenance. Behind that sit more than twenty percentages in store, nine dairy and plant milks, around twenty extras including Szechuan pepper and star anise, a 38 per cent formulated around oat milk from the start, and a founder who says he spent 10,000 hours working the drinks out. The origin roster moves year to year, with the 100 per cent showing as Solomon Islands in 2022 and the Philippines in 2026, so there is real movement in the product. That earns a stop on a street you are already walking. It earns nothing beyond one. No critic anywhere has published a verdict on the drink, and that negative was fetched: the Scotsman, the Evening News, The List, The Skinny, Time Out, the Guardian, the FT and Conde Nast Traveller were all worked directly, and the Guardian's 2022 piece is trend reporting on the format. There is no award. The buying belongs to head office, the menu read here is the chain's and is scoped to no shop, and the hygiene record is 28 months old. Order a single origin, because that is the only choice on the board that buys you something the number does not.