Italian luxury chocolate brand Amedei tests the market with a pop-up store

Hongkongers have a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life, and high quality chocolates are no exception.

Even a price rise of up to 40 per cent this year for the raw materials for chocolate failed to dent local demand for the luxury product.

High-end brands Godiva and Jean-Paul Hévin have been wooing local consumers for years. And now an Italian company, Amedei, is hoping to join them.

Amedei, based in Tuscany, recently launched a pop-up counter in City'super at Harbour City. The venture is a bellwether for the brand's latest expansion - if successful, Cecilia Tessieri, owner and founder of Amedei, envisions a permanent outpost in the city in the future.

Tessieri says Hongkongers' tastes have improved in recent years. "This city is like London - it's an international place and people here are attracted to quality. They are looking for the perfect chocolate. It is a universal product."

Godiva's chef Philippe Daue agrees. "Hong Kong and China are becoming more sensitive to quality," he says. "People are more exposed to high-end chocolates through their travels and their consumption, and they are becoming more sophisticated and demanding."

Local consumers are eating chocolates that are not as sweet, he says, which allows chocolatiers to enhance the natural flavours of the ingredients.