Shirl & Moss

Simon Godsiff grew up on a remote farm in the Marlborough Sounds, catching fish to sell to neighbours and renting out golf clubs to holidaymakers for pocket money. His sister Aimee, meanwhile, was offering tourists trips to see eels in a creek on their property. Entrepreneurial instincts clearly ran in the family.

Simon later spent seven years at Weta Workshop as a photographer, where he developed a strong eye for detail and storytelling– skills that would go on to shape the way he approaches chocolate. Over the years, he and Aimee often talked about starting a business together, but it wasn’t until 2017, after Simon discovered bean-to-bar chocolate, that everything clicked into place. What followed was two years of intense research –importing cacao, tasting chocolate from around the world, and learning the craft through trial, error, and persistence, all alongside their day jobs.

In 2019, Shirl & Moss was born. The name is a tribute to their maternal grandparents, Shirley and Maurice – two people whose warmth, generosity, and encouragement shaped who they are. That sense of connection runs through every bar. Simon and Aimee set out to make bean-to-bar chocolate that expresses the terroir of the regions where the cacao is grown, while their packaging features topographic lines traced from aerial maps of the Marlborough Sounds – a tangible link back to where it all began.

Today, Shirl & Moss is run by Simon and his partner Renee, who leads operations across the business and keeps things running smoothly behind the scenes. Their young daughter, Eve, is never far away, growing up among cocoa beans, chocolate bars, and the rhythms of a busy chocolate business.

Now based in Auckland, Shirl & Moss continues to evolve, with collaboration playing a key role in their journey. Collab partnerships with producers like Kōkako Coffee and Allpress Olive Groves have led to some of their most popular bars, bringing together shared values and a love of exceptional ingredients.