Kiwi company Avalanche Coffee's hot chocolate goes viral in Australia

A New Zealand coffee company's hot chocolate has sold out in Australia after going viral.

Avalanche Coffee's $5 hot chocolate, which is 99 per cent sugar-free, became an overnight hit after an Australian social media influencer raved about it on Instagram.

Kristin Fisher's post about the West Auckland based product being sold out in Australian supermarkets kicked off a deluge of people sharing photos of the highly sought-after item.

View this post on Instagram

I feel like I owe this to my people. This needs to be on my feed. We need to know what is going on with @avalanchecoffee and why are they on SALE (why. WHY). I’m starting to get very concerned that something sinister has happened. (I’m looking at you Jarrah). So if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of my beloved avalanche hot choc sachets, please comment on this post so we can all get some sleep tonight. #whereforartthou #mybeloved #jealousyisacursejarrah

A post shared by KRISTIN FISHER EYEBROWS (@kristin.fisher.eyebrows) on Jun 20, 2019 at 10:56pm PDT

The Hits host Toni Street stumbled across the post last night and decided to track down one of the people behind the delicious brew, Avalanche Coffee co-owner, Paul Tobin, to find out about the sudden frenzy over the product.

Tobin told Street he woke up to calls and emails from PR companies in Australia wanting to represent them.

Paul Tobin and Stefan Marusich are trying to keep up with the demand for their sugar-free hot chocolate. Photo / Supplied

"The sugar-free stuff's just going nuts. We can barely make it fast enough, really," says Tobin who supplies to supermarkets in New Zealand, Australia, and has just sent shipments to the US and the UK.

As media in Australia and the UK pick up on the hype, Tobin and co-owner Stefan Marusich have been air freighting stock every day since to meet demand in Woolworths and Coles supermarkets.

The drawcard for many is the fact that the product is 99 per cent sugar free, something Tobin says took about two years to develop. "A lot of sugar-free products don't taste so nice, but this one, we've managed to get it so that it pretty much tastes as good as a standard hot chocolate, which is key. The Keto people are absolutely loving it."

Thankfully for hot chocolate fans, the tasty treat is still available in New Zealand.

• This story is originally from The Hits. It was edited and republished here with permission.