If you like excellent chocolate and excellent company… you’re in the right place!
The Chocolate Bar is the perfect place to stop and relax. Whether you’re just passing through or you’ve lived in Ellon all your life, we can’t wait to welcome you through our doors.
Learn more about The Cafe and Shop and our Coffee and Chocolate.
Our origin story…
From a young age, Kira was happiest when she was in the kitchen. From baking with her grandmother as a young child to eventually studying chocolate and patisserie as a young adult, Kira was determined to have a career within the chocolate industry.
As luck would have it, a part time job as a Chocolatier and Confectioner came along at the right time. This was an invaluable stepping stone into the industry and allowed Kira to continue her training on the job. Kira could not believe it – it felt like a dream come true to finally be working with chocolate in a professional realm!
Since this role was only part time, it allowed Kira to continue experimenting and developing new flavours at home on her days off.
Longing to sell her own chocolate creations, Kira took a leap of faith in 2008 and Chocolat Passions was born.
Chocolat Passions was as success! The business went on to win many awards, and during this time, Kira formed some incredible relationships with local businesses. Little did she know, there would be one business in particular that would go on to shape Kira’s future!
What business you ask? Well, it was The Chocolate Bar… Kira met a couple who wanted to open a chocolate shop in Ellon, and she got to supply the shop with chocolates from the very start! A couple years down the line, Chocolat Passions rented out a section of the shop to produce chocolates in house.
What happened next?
Well, Kira continued to make chocolates in her wee corner of the shop and enjoyed getting to know all the regular customers while working away. However, five years after opening their doors, The Chocolate Bar’s owners decided it was time to start a new chapter in their life.
Although incredibly daunting, Kira knew this was the perfect opportunity to expand her business. Kira decided that since the shop was known as The Chocolate Bar, it would stay that way. Incorporating Chocolat Passions into the existing business felt like the right thing to do.
On the 14th of February 2015, keys were exchanged and Kira’s dream was finally a reality. Her own little chocolate shop, although one thing was missing, a proper café…
The shop did do a small amount of café style things in the past, but Kira really wanted to transform the shop into a trendy, community-driven cafe. A massive revamp and rebranding took place. After a lot of hard work, we had a different layout, a new menu and the addition of in-house baking was put in place.
The rest is history…
Since 2015, The Chocolate Bar has grown steadily and we’ve formed great relationships with our customers, our wider community and other local businesses alike.
Our Mission
Sustainability is at the heart of our business. Our mission is provide high quality, delicious products without compromising our planet in the process.
Ultimately, we hope to offer our local community with a safe and friendly space to catch up with friends and eat delicious food.
Don’t worry, if you live further afield, you can still enjoy our chocolate too!
EMPOWERING PEOPLE
SCHOOL WORK EXPERIENCE
We support local schools for work experience. Students that attend learn skills to enable them for the future in their careers.
Skills:
Time keeping
Customer Service
Working in teams
Food preparation
Health & Safety
Food Hygiene
Service
Working with equipment
Attention to detail
Basic Introduction to coffee
Basic introduction to Chocolate
COLLEGE WORK EXPERIENCE
We are Supporting local colleges to support students training in a relevant trade such as baking, hospitality or business management.
Skills:
Customer Service
Health & safety
Food Hygiene
Safe food practices
Handling equipment
Working in a team
Working in a fast paced environment
Baking
Food preparation
Drink preparation
Food presentation
Drink presentation
Basic Chocolate skills
Time keeping
Planning
And much more…
EQUALITY
We don’t discriminate and believe no one should. We are proud to support our staff in personal circumstances as well as working situations.
We also support a young man that requires extra support. Having Autism can be challenging, but this young man has flourished in the cafe, working in this environment has promoted;
Self confidence
Coping with busy situations
Coping with noise
Sense of achievement
Baking skills
Food preparation skills
Computer skills
Elements of service
Better understanding (for staff and customers alike)
Most importantly happiness
The most rewarding part is seeing the improvements and what impact this has on someone in not just their working life but personal.
We are very proud to support and promote equality for everyone.
Read More
STAFF TRAINING, MEMBERSHIPS & QUALIFICATIONS
OUR STAFF
We keep up to date with training. All our staff are trained to a high standard with an understanding of coffee, extraction and production. We provide in-house training and refreshers frequently while keeping up to date with external training.
MEMBERSHIPS & QUALIFICATIONS
We are a proud member of the SCA (Speciality Coffee Association) where we source our educational materials and external certificated training from. They are a fantastic not for profit organisation that aid in educational and training resources. Supporting communities, farmers and the world of coffee. We sourced our aprons from the SCA as it is in alignment with our values. The aprons are recycled coffee sacks and money goes back to the farmers and their communities.
