Conversations

When Wellington Chocolate Factory opened the doors to its factory and shop in the Hannah’s Laneway back in 2013, it was into an alley almost devoid of commerce and an Aotearoa that knew little about artisanal chocolate. As the bean-to-bar manufacturer celebrates its 10th birthday, co-founder Gabe Davidson tells Emily Brookes about sharing secrets, the next salted caramel, and his life in beans.

What exactly is bean-to-bar chocolate?

Most chocolate is industrial chocolate that chocolatiers buy in bulk from Europe and melt down and add flavourings. Often that chocolate is sourced from West Africa, the Ivory Coast and Ghana, there isn’t a lot of transparency and typically it’s one type of cocoa bean. In coffee terms, it’s like robusta as opposed to arabica. Bean-to-bar means the person you buy it from started with cocoa beans, not mass-produced chocolate

I was in Melbourne for 13 years. I started a takeaway coffee window in my early 20s, which grew to half a dozen shops and a coffee roasting business, and that’s when I got interested in ethical business and organics. Someone brought me back a bar from a bean-to-bar factory overseas – I didn’t know you could make chocolate outside of the industrial mill, that you could do it straight from cocoa beans. I thought, they’ve put raspberry flavour in there, it’s full-on raspberry, but there were only two ingredients, cocoa beans and sugar. That’s when I realised chocolate can be more than one flavour. I had done 20 years of coffee and I switched from one bean to another. My whole life’s just been beans.

How are things in Wellington now?

I’ll compare it to when I signed my name on the lease for this premises. You can imagine tumbleweed coming down the laneway and unsavoury characters everywhere. The only other business here at the time was Pizza Pomodoro. I thought, what have I done… but sure enough, slowly slowly, people started to join us, and then things like Cupadupa started up. So comparing it to 10 years ago, there’s a lot more life and vibrancy than there was, but some of the decisions around car parking and people coming in from outside to experience those things, haven’t had a positive effect on vibe.

You offer tours and masterclasses – why share your secrets?

It felt like a part of what we need to do to benefit our business, but also all the other bean-to-bar businesses that have come to New Zealand in the last 10 years, is the education. Transparency and ethics is the foundation of our company, so right back to the farmer every link in the chain is a force for good.

I do monthly masterclasses for up to 12 people. They get to put on hair nets and aprons, and learn in great detail how to make chocolate from bean to bar and take home something they’ve made. I really love being able to share that with people. I don’t think jealously guarding our ideas and our factory sits within our values.

You’ve made milk, white, even vegan chocolate – when does chocolate stop being chocolate?

A better question is, when does specialty chocolate start being confectionery chocolate – cheap sugar bombs using palm oil instead of cocoa butter. I don’t think we’d ever overstep that line.

I really like milk chocolate, I’m not as much of a snob as I used to be, though our milk chocolate is a dark milk chocolate. A lot of milk chocolate out there that ‘Big Chocolate’ makes will have 30% or less actual cocoa bean content. The rest is sugar filler, milk powder and stuff, so we’re a lot higher than that. When chocolate stops being chocolate for me would be when there are a lot more other ingredients in there and the bean gets lost.

We have done white chocolate, for a company that asked us to do deer milk chocolate. That was really interesting. Good white chocolate, I like to eat it sometimes but we don’t have any plans to make white chocolate, although we do get asked a lot.

What’s the next big flavour in chocolate? Has salted caramel had its day?

When we first did salted caramel 10 years ago, we thought it was a fad. I thought, we’ll do it for a while then something else will happen… but fat, salt and sugar, from an evolutionary perspective we’re all seeking that and love it, so it turns out it’s still one of our biggest, if not biggest, sellers 10 years on.

We’re always experimenting, and if something comes out we really like we will release it as a limited edition, and if it really pops we’ll add it to the core range but I think fat, salt and sugar together is really human. I hope one day there will be a next salted caramel though.

Do you ever get sick of eating chocolate?

A few times we’ve judged at the Solomon Island Chocolate Festival and it’s basically a week of being in a room eating and evaluating chocolate. After that I don’t want to eat chocolate for a while – I just crave something very savoury, salty, and lots of water. But apart from that, I don’t really get sick of it. I talked to my GP about it and he said, up to 50g of good quality chocolate per day he’s not worried about – once it gets past that, talk to him. So I know my limit.

“That’s when I realised chocolate can be more than one flavour. I had done 20 years of coffee and I switched from one bean to another. My whole life’s just been beans.”