East Hastings just got a new addition.
Next door to Strathcona Beer Company is a chocolate-covered sweet tooth's dream in the form of Hype Chocolate's new retail space and ice cream shop.
What started out as an order-only chocolate business in December 2021 is now a full-blown brick-and-mortar take-out counter and store with amazing treats and cool retro-style merch.
Hype Chocolate has a reputation for being unique and original. In an Instagram caption, they stated their goal was "pushing the boundaries with unique flavours and visual experiences to create the feeling of 'Nostalgia.'"
They achieve nostalgia with crazy 90s-esque flavour combos and ingredients like gummy candies and children's cereal. They even turned ruby chocolate into miniature pairs of pink Nike Dunks and back in March they had a booth at Sneakercon.
The new store still sells your favourite chocolate bars and sweet treats but they've also added ice cream to the mix and are having fun with floats, milkshakes, and ice cream sandwiches. Think chocolate peanut butter ice cream Oreo sandwiches dipped in Reese's peanut butter chocolate, or an entire wall of childhood sugary cereal dispensers that can be blended into soft serve or sprinkled on top of ice cream. Lucky charms marshmallows, mini French toast crunch pieces, golden Grahams, and fruity pebbles are just a few of the options on offer.
But the real uniqueness comes in the form of a cooler full of obscure sodas that get mixed with ice cream to make electric blue floats. Or at least it's blue in the case of the Faygo cotton candy float but there is also a Faygo firework version which is inspired by the red white and blue firecracker popsicles of our youth.
Hype Chocolate pushes the limits of candy with all of the zeal of 12-year-old left attended—chocolate-covered foam bananas and birthday cake chocolate-covered twinkies say it all. But the interior speaks to a larger understanding of the street style scene in Vancouver that has always been ingrained in Hype's identity.
The floor is so shiny that at first glance it actually looks wet and the industrial finishes and Be@rbricks that greet you set the store apart from its peers that tend to take the overly sugary approach with their store designs as well as their food.
Die-hard fans of Hype can also pick up one of their shirts which is hanging from the walls.
