Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery

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At the start of the Great Ocean Road, in Bellbrae, just ten minutes from Torquay is a fabulous shop. It isn’t a clothing store or antiques store, and it has only been there since 2016. We’ve all seen Willy Wonka and read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – well, this is that come to life. After you walk down the pathway and inside, tables of chocolate, in all kinds of flavours and combinations greet you, adjoining a café with tables inside and outside, or you can grab something to take away.

The Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery is twenty minutes from Geelong, between Anglesea and Torquay, around the start of the Great Ocean Road. It opened in 2016 and is set across fifteen acres with a shop and a café, and they make all their chocolate on site – you can watch it being made, and each time I have been, the staff have been creating something different in the chocolate factory. From the tables of chocolates of all kinds to the Great Wall of Chocolate, it feels like there is something there for everyone, and staff go around handing out free samples to visitors, so you can try before you buy – and why not?



The fifteen acres of the Chocolaterie include the main building, which houses the shop, kitchen, and café, a kitchen garden, a sand play area, and a fruit and nut orchard, where many of the ingredients used in the chocolate come from. Not only can you buy chocolate here, but they also sell ice cream, breakfast, and lunch, as well as a range of homemade desserts. Trying to choose something to buy here feels impossible, because you may want to try a bit of everything. The good news is that you can order online as well if you can’t make it to the store.

The café doesn’t require bookings – and they offer a delectable range of products all day. They can be eaten at the café or on the grounds of the factory, and they have a seasonal menu – so if you’re going, check out the website to see what they have on offer. And it’s not just chocolate, though the chocolate and ice cream is the main reason most people go. If you want more chocolate than you can carry, they’ll ship it to you when you order online for $15 – check out their special online store. And when you go to the café, there are no bookings required.



But they offer more than all of this, as you can watch European chocolatiers working, choose from over 450 chocolate varieties, and taste chocolate at daily tasting sessions. During this time, you will be able to taste twelve different hand-crafted chocolates, learn where the ingredients come from, and about the techniques used to make the chocolate. These sessions are affordable - $3 per person, with three sessions a day: 11am, 1pm and 3pm – you can ask on the day you go to reserve your place.

Alternatively, if you are going with a large group for an occasion, you can book your own hosted tasting, based on availability. For $3 per person and a minimum of ten guests, you can book a chocolate-tasting session. If truffles are more your style, this option is available for groups of at least ten, for $15 per person. Group bookings are essential and can be made via phone of 5263 1588 or via email - [email protected].

The Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery also offers classes – Junior Chocolatier Classes for children aged 6-12, and Taste and Create Workshops or Chocolate Discovery Classes for people aged 12 and over. More information is available on their classes page. This would be something really fun to do if you can.

Want to spice up your kid’s birthday party? Well, they offer those too – contact them to find out more. When I went, there were no parties, and I think I was there when the classes and demonstrations weren’t happening – I think these would make great presents and experiences for people of all ages and would really make the experience going to the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery fulfilling. Having only been there to shop, if I ever go back again, trying the café and a class if I can time it right would be wonderful, as even if the chocolate can be expensive, the classes are affordable.

The wide grounds and single-storey also make this quite accessible, as the tables with chocolate have a lot of room to move around them, meaning prams, wheelchairs, and other mobility aids can get in there. This, coupled with the playground, makes it a very ffamily-friendlyexperience as well, and I think you would need more than a couple of hours of quick visit here. It is the kind of place that needs to be explored a lot more than I have had the chance to do and one day would like to explore it some more.

Open every day 9am to 5pm, except Christmas Day.

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