If you, like me, love chocolate, you likely already know that today is World Chocolate Day, To celebrate we’ve put together a selection of our favourite Australian chocolatiers.  We encourage you to indulge in the delectable delicacies should you get the chance.

Hey Tiger –  VIC

Cyan Ta’eed’s ethical sustainable chocolate brand is on a mission to change the world one chocolate bar at a time. Ta’eed created Hey Tiger because she wanted to make a chocolate that not only tasted fantastic but was great for the cocoa industry too.

“When we created Hey Tiger we didn’t want you to buy it because you felt like it was the right thing to do… we wanted you to buy it because it’s amazing! Our mission was to make an amazing brand that just happens to be a social enterprise under the hood,” she says on the brand’s website.

Ta’eed says the cocoa industry has some big problems. “There’s a lot of child trafficking and child labour, and the industry is responsible for a lot of pain and suffering for children and families in West Africa. It felt really wrong that something that gives us so much pleasure and joy could be such a negative force in so many lives. So we decided to do something about it.”

As such Hey Tiger donates a minimum of 50c per full size bar and 25c per mini bar to The Hunger Project Ghana to fund cocoa farming communities and put an end to child labour. 

Federation Chocolate – TAS

When husband and wife team Maurice and Helen Curtis bought iconic Tasmanian chocolate company Federation Chocolate in 2014, the couple decided to take the brand in a new direction. Rather than produce chocolate for a mass-market they switched tact to transform Federation into an artisan chocolate brand that hand selects beans sourced from ethical and sustainable cacao farms to produce a quality stone-ground chocolate product renowned across Australia.

“One of the difficult things with supply chain is you can never really tell where something comes from – and a lot of difficulties with chocolate is a lot of farms where cacao is grown, deal with unethical farming, child labor and aren’t sustainable. So, for us, it became paramount that if we were to sell a product everyone enjoys, it couldn’t cause harm.”

 Noosa Chocolate Factory – QLD
Launched in 2008, Noosa Chocolate Factory began by looking after the chocolate coating needs of wholesale customers. In 2009, they began their own retail line and now they handcraft some of the world’s best chocolate pairings. With locations

“We have partnered with incredible Australian farms and use cutting edge techniques to create chocolate pairings that will simply blow your mind!” say founders Chris and Amy.

Some of these exciting products include their vegetarian Valencia orange pectin jelly slab, freeze-dried whole Victorian Strawberries, Kingaroy cocoa dusted peanuts, semi-dried chocolate coated cranberries, chocolate-coated young Queensland ginger and chocolate-coated South Australian pesticide-free Almonds.

From dark chocolate to milk and white, customers are spoilt for choice. All ranges are palm oil free and they have gluten-free options. They don’t have an online store as everything is made fresh!

Bahen & Co. – WA
Based in Margaret River, Bahen & Co makes stone ground chocolate from bean to bar.

“We are on a continual search for fine flavoured cacao. Building long-term relationships with farmers based on solid principles of mutual benefit, transparent and fair. By paying direct and cutting out the middleman, we exceed Fair Trade and pay prices that respect the farmer’s efforts.”

“Our chocolate can only be as good as the quality of the cacao we source. We spend a lot of time searching for these rare varieties of heritage cacao that produce the finest of flavours. To secure these sources we work hard to build relationships with our growers. Farmers dealing with farmers – we strive to deal 100% direct.”

Their beans come from Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and Brazil.

Three Chocolatiers – NSW

This premium handcrafted chocolate company is best known for its dark chocolate and freeze-dried berry concoctions which burst with flavour and melt in your mouth. All chocolate is handcrafted and the range spans milk chocolates to dark and panned chocolate blocks. With over 50 varieties on offer, there is certain to be something to suit every taste.

Ethical farming and sustainability are also of vital importance to this brand. Three Chocolatiers has a mantra  to help build self-sustaining farming communities that protect nature and children.

“We are proud partners of The Cocoa Horizons Foundation which is an independent, non-profit organization supervised by the Swiss Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority.

“Our purpose is to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable, entrepreneurial farming, improved productivity, and community development, which protect nature and children.”