Our favourite chocolate retailers and craftspeople in Australia.
SYDNEY
At Kakawa, husband-and-wife team David Ralph and Jinsun Kim turn the finest single-origin cacao they can find into the likes of rich chocolate spread, dark chocolate ice-cream sandwiches, chocolate-and-honeycomb slabs and a next-level peanut praline bar that’ll put the Snickers on notice. Kakawa, 147 William St, Darlinghurst, NSW, (02) 9331 8818
Blink and you easily could miss this charming little Paddington chocolatier – and trust us, that’s not something you want to do. Their handcrafted offerings span boozy liqueur-filled bombs to rich pralines, nutty chocolate barks and mango cream-injected penguins. Cute. Just William Chocolates, 4 William St, Paddington, NSW, (02) 9331 5468
[
Boon](http://boonchocolates.com.au/)
This chocolate mecca offers a blockbuster range of pralines (balsamic vinegar and strawberry, milk chocolate with lemongrass, and dark chocolate with cinnamon and orange peel, for example) made from premium-quality Belgian cocoa, plus a small selection of chocolate-based drinks and desserts to be enjoyed in the upstairs lounge. Sweet as. Boon, 251 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, NSW, (02) 9356 8876
MELBOURNE
Are Tad Lombardo’s chocolates the finest in the nation? They’re certainly up there with the best of them. Lombardo counts Attica among his clients and his pralines, ganaches and truffles combine Felchlin Swiss chocolate with careful crafting and flavours such as vanilla-infused olive oil, habanero chilli, and pumpkin spice. Cioccolato Lombardo, Shop 97, Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Rd, South Yarra, Vic, 0419 575 086
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Monsieur Truffe](http://www.monsieurtruffechocolate.com/)
Monsieur Truffe’s factory headquarters is your one-stop shop for Melbourne’s best single-origin choc. Take it in the form of a wicked hazelnut-spiked slab, 70 per cent hot chocolate or a dangerously addictive caramel-speckled bar. Monsieur Truffe Factory & Store, 351 Lygon St, Brunswick East, Vic, (03) 9380 4915
Sure, the cakes and desserts take centrestage at this Melbourne sweet-tooth favourite, but the chocolates are no less impressive. Head there for popcorn and honeycomb rubble, candied ginger and dark chocolate bars and their best-selling salted caramel-infused dark chocolate bullion bars. Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, 647 Chapel St, South Yarra, Vic, (03) 9827 7060
PERTH[
Rochelle Adonis](http://rochelleadonis.com/shop)
Perhaps better classified as a cake shop than a chocolatier, Rochelle Adonis still has the cocoa offerings (vanilla-infused South American drinking chocolate, vanilla-whisky Valrhona chocolate cakes and dark chocolate-coated honey marshmallow, among them) that are worthy of the limelight. Rochelle Adonis, 2 St Albans Ave, Highgate, WA, (08) 9227 0007
Yuki Nakamura handcrafts her Japanese-accented chocolates with extreme care. Expect the likes of pink-speckled cherry blossom and milk chocolate pralines, strawberry and green tea ganache, and lemon, mint and dark chocolate pralines with gold dusting. She doesn’t have a shopfront, but you can order her work from the Nakamura website or by calling 0435 770 657.
HOBART
Andy Abramowich’s chocolates have been the object of Tasmanian chocolate fiends’ affections for years, and now, after much anticipation, he finally has somewhere to showcase them. At his new Huonville shopfront and workshop you can get your hands on all of his praline classics, plus the likes of Belgian waffles with chocolate sauce, hot chocolate adorned with his signature cat’s tongue chocolates and house-made chocolate ice-cream. The Cat’s Tongue Chocolatiers, Shop 3, 11-13 Wilmot Rd, Huonville, Tas, 0428 411 455
BRISBANE
Smack-bang in the blossoming food precinct of Red Hill, Couverture & Co offers some of Brisbane’s top artisan choc. Among the highlights, little cubes of dark chocolate and matcha ganache, chewy caramel and Murray River salt in milk chocolate, and figs in a dark chocolate and amaretto ganache. Couverture & Co, 19A Enoggera Tce, Red Hill, Qld, (07) 3367 3000
The good folk at Mayfield use top-notch local produce to give their chocolates a uniquely Australian twist. Take the rainforest lemon-myrtle ganache, for example, or the dark chocolate spiked with Tasmanian leatherwood honey and ginger. Mayfield Chocolates, Wickham House, 155 Wickham Tce, Spring Hill, Qld, (07) 3832 1832
Fancy a brownie? Dello Mano’s are some of Brisbane’s best (according to Oprah Winfrey, anyway). They also offer a range of hand-rolled cocoa, strawberry and peppermint-flavoured truffles, slabs of creamy chocolate fudge and hot cross brownies – a hot cross bun/brownie hybrid – for Easter. Dello Mano, 29 Doggett St, Teneriffe, Qld, (07) 3257 1678
ADELAIDE
Adelaide chocolatier Steven ter Horst uses French and Belgian couverture to create some of the tastiest (and, might we add, prettiest) blocks and pralines in town. His range spans blood orange and crêpe crumb-topped blocks, jasmine tea-infused ganache with confit green tea, kiwi and Champagne pâte de fruit and saffron-infused local mangrove honey in a dark chocolate ganache. Steven ter Horst, 256 Rundle St, Adelaide, (08) 7226 6216
