Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery

A couple of weeks ago my sister told me about a place in Bellbrae, around 30 minutes from Geelong city centre, that is all about chocolate. Well, I was intrigued as I haven’t been to a chocoholics day since my 30th birthday at The Windsor Hotel, many years ago. I expected to see a café selling lots of chocolate cakes, ice cream and drinks in dark, milk and white chocolate. But what I got was so much more . . .

So my sister & I packed up the boys, my two nephews aged nine and five, into the car and headed for a drive down the coast, between Torquay and Lorne. My nephews were super excited about chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate that I think they were salivating all the way there! I don’t think they’ve ever seen so much chocolate in one place!

The first thing we’re greeted with is three ginormous bowls of dark, milk and white chocolate drops -you’re free to grab a spoonful while you check out the rest of the showroom. To the right, you’ll notice huge viewing windows where you’re able to watch the chocolatiers making all the different chocolates by hand, which is wonderful to see  how their chocolates are made. To tease and entice you, their staff hand out chocolate samples, where you should stop at one but end up trying them all. A huge glass counter showcases their 7000 handmade truffles, which you take home in boxes of six, 12 or 24.

Walk a little further to a 300 seat cafeteria, where you can sit down & indulge in chocolate cakes, macarons and drinks. The best bit is the three wheels churning milk, dark and white chocolate that greet you before you choose your ‘death by chocolate’. Don’t really want to spoil your chocolate indulgence? Why not enjoy some savoury items that are on the menu.  Why not enjoy a few, or six, cakes and macarons or maybe a milk chocolate fondue with fresh fruit, peanut praline, honey comb and nougat, which my sister and I enjoyed immensely. The boys eyes soon became bigger than their bellies after a couple of bites of their chocolate cakes and shots of milk chocolate! Lucky there’s a huge outdoor area with balls, cricket bats and sand pits for the kids to run off their chocolate-coma.

Time to shop 🙂 There’s one metre of chocolate, a one kilogram mega block of chocolate, the wall of chocolate and cute chocolate animals, in all flavours of chocolate, to take home. And if you wish to smell of chocolate everyday, why not indulge in chocolate soaps, hand lotions and body washes! I couldn’t go past the salted caramel pot and six truffles, for everyone to share when we got home, which were out of this world! (I’ve had to hide my salted caramel so I don’t pour it on my weet-bix in the morning as it’s that good!) My sister bought mint chocolate for my bro-in-law, hot chocolate mugs for my nephews and pure drinking chocolate.

Outside, as we were leaving, they also have an ice-creamery selling more than 24 house-made flavours of ice cream and sorbet. I seriously couldn’t fit anymore in so we’ll go there another day for ice creams, and to top up on the chocolate truffles 😉

So if you’re a sweet tooth, or would love to do a chocolate appreciation course, you will absolutely love this place. If you visit the Surf Coast in Victoria any time soon, why not indulge in a chocolate experience while you’re there. Having only been opened since September this year, this is a place that will be here for quite a long while to come because who doesn’t love chocolate!?! The Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery is open 9-5pm every day, apart from Christmas Day and is located at 1200 Great Ocean Road (corner Elkington Road), Bellbrae 3228.