A NEW chocolate shop is injecting a sweet bit of colour into Oxford city centre.

Montezuma swung open the doors of its mint-coloured building on the corner of Queen Street for the first time yesterday.

Owners said they had been eyeing up Oxford as a destination for a while and the perfect unit popped up just by Carfax Tower.

The building was formerly a pop-up shop selling men’s clothing but more recently was Crabtree and Evelyn – the beauty shop.

It has since has a major makeover with the walls now painted in bright colours to match the signature orange and blue packaging.

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The company said it wanted to ‘inject a bit of fun into the chocolate shop’ so it is ‘completely different’ to other brands that opt for brown and burgundy colours.

The packaging is also completely recyclable, and the company says it is waste-free – even going as far as selling imperfect truffles that might normally have been thrown away at discounted prices in bags.

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The new Oxford shop also boasts a zero-packaging section where shoppers can fill up a reusable jar full of thick chocolate cut-offs.

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The small team behind the latest venture have already opened six stores across the south – Chichester where the factory is, Brighton, Norwich, Spitafields in London, Kingston and Winchester.

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Managing director Bruce Alexander said: “We’re very excited about opening in Oxford.

“We’ve been looking at Oxford for a while – we didn’t want a huge shop but we needed somewhere where there are lots of people – this is perfect.

“The shop and brand is all about having fun.”

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The founders of the company, Helen and Simon Pattinson, said: “This is really exciting opening in Oxford for the first time.

“The last place we opened a shop was in Norwich about 18 months ago.

“The high street is really exciting and people still love shopping.

“Our shop is colourful because chocolate shouldn’t be too serious.”

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The pair come up with all the names themselves and the product ideas – with a small team who make all the creations into reality.

Mr Pattinson said his favourite chocolate is the ‘dark side’ because it is high in cocoa but still tastes like milk chocolate. Mrs Pattinson said hers is American Idol which is a truffle chocolate with salted caramel.

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