Jiri (George) Havlik arrived in New Zealand, in 1999, from his native Czech Republic with just a bag of clothes and knowing two words of English, “Yes” and “No”. As a trained Pastry Chef, George worked in a variety of kitchens, but after six years of hard work in other people’s businesses, he decided it was time to venture out on his own.
In 2005, George and his wife opened Bohemein Fresh Chocolates with the goal of creating chocolates that were made with high quality and fresh NZ ingredients. From his experiences of chocolate shop’s back home, George opened Bohemein with a simple premise, “I can do this, but I think can do it better”. The idea was simple, take great tasting ingredients and treat them with respect and integrity to retain what made them great in the first place.
There is beauty in the simplicity of how we treat and make our products. The important thing is that we don’t confuse simplicity with easy. We don’t do easy, we don’t do hard, we just do it right. Great ingredients, combined with a lot of passion and the correct technique delivers great results. That’s why we believe our chocolates rival any in the world.