Chocolatier or chocolate maker?

Many chocolate shops in Australia and around the world could be classified as chocolatiers—this means buying in chocolate that has been pre-made (often in Switzerland, Belgium or in France) called couverture. Couverture is often made and blended* for a consistency of flavour and texture. That’s to say, that it tastes and feels the same no matter what time of year you buy it! This couverture is then taken and skilfully melted and tempered into a range of chocolates specific to the chocolatier’s palate or offering—think bars with inclusions or delightfully filled bonbons. Oftentimes, there isn’t a whole lot of traceability or transparency within the supply chain of many big producers of couverture; which means that we don’t know where the cocoa has come from, how much a farmer is being paid or how the beans are being processed.

Small batch chocolate makers buy cocoa beans—either directly through the farmer or via transparent trade. When we say that we make our chocolate from scratch, we are taking the beans and processing them through several stages before they become the chocolate that we can use in our final products. This gives us greater control and knowledge as to where our beans are coming from, and more clarity about what is happening throughout each link of the supply chain. In many cases we can attribute cocoa beans directly to each farmer, co-op and fermentary that the beans are coming from. The most amazing part about the process is being able to bring out the qualities of each origin, whether that be something like a fruity, woody Madagascar or a fudge, nutty Ecuador.

*Blending, often involves taking beans from multiple origins and mixing them together to create specific flavour profiles.

Image © Kokoa Kamili 2022