The 21st century has been kind to anyone with an adventurous palate. There’s now an astonishing variety of artisan foods and epicurean treats available, with consumers spoiled for choice in every aisle of the supermarket. You can find the exact roast profile of coffee you like, the particular hops you favour in beer, and the specific amount of sourness you prefer in bread. For anyone with decision anxiety, it’s a delectable nightmare. So with Easter incoming, we’ve scoured the country to find the best Australian chocolate.
At first glance, modern-day chocolate shelves offer the same abundance. There are countless attractive brands, bright colours and exciting flavours on offer, but behind all those tempting wrappers, you might be surprised by the lack of diversity. Most mass-produced chocolate is made from similar cacao beans – the main ingredient of chocolate – and usually offers the same “chocolatey” flavour we’re all familiar with. Surprisingly, there are also many brands that don’t produce their own chocolate.
A lot of Australian chocolatiers use pre-made, mass-produced “couverture” from companies like Barry Callebaut or Valrhona, which they melt down and repurpose for their own creations. So while there are many different chocolate bars on a shelf, many of them offer the same core flavour, and some are literally made from the same chocolate as each other.
This lack of variation inspired Cuvée Chocolate co-founder Deniz Karaca to create his own chocolate from scratch, after years of working with European couverture. “We wanted to create something that was unique in the market,” says Karaca. “It’s very hard when you buy the same ingredients as all your main competitors. If you start at the same point, you don’t necessarily end at the same point, but you end up with something very similar.”
Originally from Germany but now based in Melbourne, Karaca has more than 20 years experience as a pastry chef and chocolatier. He placed third in the 2013 World Chocolate Masters competition in Paris, and was Savour Patissier of the Year in 2016. Despite reaching such pinnacles of chocolate success, he had a strong desire to take things one step further, and in 2019 he started making bean-to-bar chocolate, using a variety of rare types of cacao.
Cacao is a tropical fruit native to South America but is now cultivated worldwide, typically within 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Much like the diverse grape varieties used to craft different wines, there are many different types of cacao, offering more than 400 natural flavour notes. Cuvée Chocolate’s Grand Cru 75% Dark Chocolate bar, for example, carries distinct cherry and plum notes, thanks to the Tanzanian cacao with which it’s made. The familiar “chocolate” flavour many of us grew up with is just one of cacao’s many possibilities, yet it remains the dominant profile in mainstream chocolate.
The process of turning cacao into chocolate is long and complex. It begins with farmers harvesting cacao pods, fermenting the beans, then drying them out. The beans are then shipped to the chocolate maker, who roasts the beans to fine-tune the flavour. They’re then cracked and “winnowed” to separate the inner nibs from their shells, before the nibs are ground into a paste, known as cacao mass.
The mass is refined for smoothness, then conched to further develop flavour and texture – a process that involves continuously mixing and aerating the chocolate for up to 72 hours. “It’s all really hands-on,” says Karaca. “If you come into our kitchen, it’s not just a stainless steel line of machines that are all connected, where you chuck in beans at one end and chocolate comes out at the other. Every step of our process has a human involved; every step has quality control. We can really keep our finger on the pulse.”
The bean-to-bar movement was largely based in North America until around 2005, when craft chocolate makers started emerging across the globe. Australia was among the early adopters, with Michelle Morgan of Zokoko in Sydney establishing her brand in 2006. Today, there are more than 35 Australian bean-to-bar makers, as well as a handful of specialty cacao growers in northern Queensland.
Debbie Makin of Ratio Cocoa Roasters in Melbourne is a former zoologist and lifelong chocolate enthusiast. Inspired by her brother’s coffee roastery and its “bean-to-cup” ethos, Makin followed her chocolate dream and set up a bean-to-bar factory in Brunswick in 2017. The factory has a glass wall running through its centre, behind which you can see the full production process, from sacks of beans at one end to wrapped bars at the other.
“The biggest thing about bean-to-bar is transparency,” says Makin. “We’ve got nothing to hide – anyone can see the equipment we’re using; anyone can see the ingredients we’re using.”
Like most specialty foods, bean-to-bar chocolate costs more than mass-produced alternatives, with most bars priced between $10 and $15. That price isn’t just a reflection of the high quality ingredients and craftsmanship, it’s also a result of ethically sourcing the beans. “Sourcing directly from farmers or cooperatives means we know exactly where our beans come from,” says Makin. “We know that the farmer’s being paid a fair price, well above market rates.”
Makin is also the organiser of The Australian Chocolate Festival by Bean-to-Bar Makers. Last year’s inaugural festival featured 25 stalls and chocolate makers from seven different countries, with a strong emphasis on educating the public about the quality, ethics and flavour diversity of bean-to-bar chocolate. This year’s festival is happening on July 5 to 6 at the Seaworks Precinct in Williamstown, Victoria, with twice as many stalls and visitors expected.
Although bean-to-bar chocolate is arguably 20 years behind the specialty coffee or craft beer trends, it’s the fastest growing sector in the global chocolate industry. Educating consumers and changing culture takes time, but the Australian movement is introducing people to chocolate with more flavour, nuance and purpose than they ever thought possible.
Thanks to the hard work of Deniz Karaca, Debbie Makin and a host of other passionate pioneers, there’s never been a more enticing or compelling time to be a chocolate lover.
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