Chocolate !
How sweet it is !
By Peter Vincent
October 25, 2006
Sydney Morning Herald

Chocolate elicits emotional responses like no other food. Chocolate is sensual but some of the most famous chocolate-producing families were Quakers, including the Cadburys and the Frys.

The Mayans believed it was "the food of the Gods". It's even more powerfully associated with childhood. What kid didn't want to be Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Christophe Roose, proprietor of Christophe Ses Chocolats in Sydney's Five Dock, has his own theory about why we love chocolate so much.

"I read somewhere that a mother's milk is sweet, so really we have a sweet tooth as soon as we are born," he says. "Everyone knows chocolate makes us feel good - maybe that's because it comforts us."

Chocolate is an everyday thing for millions - how many people finish a meal with chocolate? But it also can be a luxury or a treat - witness the growing number of boutique stores in the capital cities selling old favourites as well as chocolate truffles flavoured with chilli, poppyseed and orange, peppercorns or lilly pilly.

Suzie Wharton, a chocophile who runs "chocoholic tours" of Melbourne, reckons long-standing cultural associations of chocolate as exotic and pleasurable, mixed with the fact the stuff tastes pretty good, mean most of us are powerless against chocolate. "Nine out of 10 people are chocoholics and the 10th is a liar," she says.

Adelaide's Steven ter Horst loves chocolate so much he changed careers so he could work with it.

The former customer services officer for the Commonwealth Bank is retraining at Melbourne's Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School to become a chocolate maker.

"People aren't really happy to see you when you work in a bank," ter Horst says, "but when you work in a chocolate shop people are always smiling at you."

Sales figures say more women than men buy chocolate, but even the stereotypical Aussie bloke can't resist it.

Roose says most Australian males used to be more at home buying a carton of beer than chocolate, but that's changing. "My customers are probably about 50:50 these days."

The likes of the Belgians and Swiss are renowned as the great chocolate makers, despite chocolate not growing in either country. Cacao trees don't grow further than 20 degrees from the equator and more than two-thirds of cocoa beans are grown in West Africa. The Caribbean is also home to several major producers.

"Single origin" chocolate - which means the beans can be verified as coming from one source - is all the rage, although enthusiasm is not universal. Alastair Haigh, of Australian chocolate producer Haighs, says restricting sources to one place can mean variations in taste, depending on how good a harvest is. "We use a blend of beans so we can maintain uniformity in flavour."

Australia doesn't produce its own chocolate yet - although it's not far off. Cacao trees planted in North Queensland in 2000 are expected to start producing enough beans to give local manufacturers a reliable local source within two years.

So what are the best chocolates? Imported brands such as Godiva and Leonidas (both Belgian), Patchi (French) or local chocolates such as Koko Black or Kennedy & Wilson (all of which start at $100 a kilogram) are highly rated but Wharton suggests you take a mix-and-match approach. "Why not buy one chocolate from each brand and pick out the ones you like?"