Ever wondered what the story was behind that yummy bar of chocolate, roasted coffee beans or wine?
Find out a bit more about the people and businesses, who passionately make the products you see on Gourmet & Green. Get to know our partners!
Ratio Cocoa Roasters
Ratio Cocoa Roasters' combination of traditional chocolate making techniques & single origin cacao beans, bring you individually flavoured, small batch, hand crafted chocolate to the comfort of your home.
Their intricate process involves sorting carefully through beans, roasting in an antique ball roaster then cacao beans being cracked & winnowed, resulting in cocoa nibs. To this, minimal ingredients are added depending on if it is milk or dark chocolate, including Australian organic raw cane sugar.
Once ingredients are selected, they're placed in stone grinders for at least 72 hours, after which they become a smooth liquid. This is then aged for a minimum of 3 weeks, after which the chocolate is tempered and lovingly poured into moulds then hand packaged.
Not many chocolate companies worldwide still use these traditional methods, so not only are you eating chocolate free of preservatives or additives, you're tasting a bit of history and tradition with every bar of Ratio Cocoa Roasters chocolate.
For more information, you can find Ratio Cocoa Roasters here.
Bahen & Co
Bahen & Co make their delicious chocolate, using the traditional bean to bar method, on their farm based in the Margaret River region, in Western Australia.
Both founders come from a background in cultivating grapes for wine, so come with experience in understanding those complex flavours and ingredients, and simplifying and translating them into products we've all come to love.
Using vintage tools including a 1930’s Barth Sirocco Ball Roaster and circa 1910 Guitard Melangeur, their process is slow and methodical, preserving the depth of flavour and story of ingredients sourced globally.
We love that Bahen & Co are passionated about forming and maintaining long-term relationships with their partners, forming partnerships to benefit all involved in a transparent and fair way, allowing farmers to receive prices for their cocao that can actually exceed Fair Trade minimum requirements.
We (and they!) hope you enjoy the bean to bar experience, just as much as we do.
For more information, you can find Bahen & Co here.
Metiisto
Metiisto Artisan Chocolate makes their chocolate in Toowoomba, Queensland, but their chocolate making roots actually were first grounded back in Falun, Sweden in 2012.
Since then, they've won numerous international awards for their delicious products. Throughout that period, they've been passionate about producing delicious and elegant chocolate, using the best, ethically sourced ingredients in the bean to bar method.
Being located in the Pacific region, Metiisto sustainably sources cocoa from neighbouring countries, including the Solomon Islands.
They are dedicated to a sustainable future for chocolate, for both its suppliers and cocoa farmers and the consumers who get to enjoy their bean to bar chocolate.
For more information, you can find Metiisto here.
