Elizabeth/stock.adobe.com
Lights
Beneath the
Northern
A Mörk Chocolate Experience
Photo: Mörk Chocolate
Steam curled above each cup, mingling with pine‑scented air as guests climbed the stairway into Mörk’s Northern Series event. On this winter’s night in North Melbourne, fifteen had answered Josefin Zernell’s invitation to step into a world of Nordic flavours, sounds and sights.
Mushroom‑shaped lamps glowed on linen‑draped tables; four colourful chocolate tablets waited at each place. At the centre stood Josefin—Melbourne’s quietly revolutionary hot chocolate pioneer—whose journey from a Stockholm apprenticeship to challenging a coffee‑mad city was now distilled into four bars, each a chapter of flavour, memory and philosophy.
Chapter One – The Hearth
Toasted caraway, browned butter & Swedish bread
Josefin’s voice softened the room into stillness. “This first chocolate is our hearth—a place of warmth, tradition.” Inspired by a history of Vikings, Swedish bread and indigenous Sàmi rituals to the tables of her Stockholm childhood, the bar carried toasted caraway, browned butter and slender shards of Swedish bread, melting into a flavor as comforting as firelight. A projection of glowing embers shimmered on the walls, paired with the faint crackle of a winter fireplace. Guests closed their eyes, sinking into the taste of home—even if it wasn’t their own.
For Josefin, “the hearth” is more than a metaphor. It recalls her childhood kitchens in Stockholm, where winters were long and heat was precious. She first learned the discipline of chocolate‑making as an apprentice to a local chocolatier—working for free for six months just to absorb techniques, textures, and the patience the craft demanded. That quiet dedication would one day carry her across continents. When she arrived in Melbourne fifteen years ago, she found a city obsessed with coffee—but almost untouched by truly artisanal hot chocolate. She was determined to change that.
Back in the tasting room, the last moments of this evocative chocolate melted from the guests’ tongues. The warmth lingered, preparing them for the deeper, earthier notes of the next chapter…
"This first chocolate is our hearth—a place of warmth, tradition"
Photo: Mörk Chocolate
Chapter Two – The Root Cellar
Earthy beets, native pepper, goat’s milk & liquorice
The next chapter was an imagined walk through a dense Nordic forest, down cool stone steps into a shadowed root cellar. Shelves sagged under the preserved harvest—rows of jewel‑bright jars, pickled beets glowing deep crimson in the dim light. Folk melodies wound through the space, grounding the room in a sense of place.
Onto each linen setting came a deep purple chocolate square infused with earthy red beet, native pepper, tangy goat’s milk from Caldermeade Farm, and tiny flecks of black liquorice. Beneath lay a base of single‑origin Nicaraguan dark chocolate, whose gentle depth supported and rounded the root‑driven, spice‑bright flavours—echoes of the hearty winter dishes from Josefin’s Swedish childhood.
For Josefin, that combination of earthiness, spice and comfort captures what she has long tried to create at Mörk’s North Melbourne Brew House. Part café, part workshop, part stage for the senses — it’s where ideas like the Root Cellar bar are born and brought to life for curious drinkers.
Mörk’s North Melbourne Brew House, tucked inside a former bakery, is more than a café—it’s a playground and a laboratory. “We always dreamed of a venue where people could come and taste the difference for themselves,” Josefin says. The space is intimate, experimental, and unapologetically focused on chocolate. There’s no coffee machine—an audacious move in Melbourne. Instead, visitors are invited to experience chocolate in all its complexity, from cold brews of cacao beans to “campfire chocolate,” a drink designed to evoke nostalgia and awaken the senses.
Folk melodies and jars of ruby preserves transported guests to long‑ago winter kitchens
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