Overview
For those more into chocolate than coffee, Christmas has come early, with Ratio Cocoa Roasters last week opening the doors to its new Sydney Road chocolate store and cafe.
A luxe new addition to Melbourne's food scene, Ratio is the brainchild of Debbie Makin, whose international travels sparked a serious passion for all things chocolate and inspired the creation of bean-to-bar chocolate company celebrating single origin beans from around the world.
Step through the door of the Brunswick store and you'll discover a chocolate-filled paradise, where quality and authenticity is the name of the game. Here, Makin and her team of chocolatiers are scouting out the world's finest single origin cocoa beans and using only traditional chocolate making techniques to handcraft individually flavoured artisan chocolate bars. Beans are hand-sorted, roasted in an antique ball roaster, cracked and then de-husked, leaving that little nugget of gold you'd recognise as the cocoa nib.
They're then blended with Aussie whole milk powder and organic Peruvian cocoa butter to create Ratio's milk chocolate range, and with organic raw Brazilian cane sugar to make the dark chocolate.
Don't be surprised if the end result is worlds away from other stuff you've tried. "Unfortunately not many people know the true taste of chocolate because everything is so heavily processed and added to," Makin explains. "We are here to show chocolate in its authentic and most delicious form."
From January, as well as eating the finished product, visitors will be able to enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of Ratio's factory.
Ratio Cocoa Roasters is now open at 186, Sydney Road, Brunswick. For more info, visit ratiococoa.com.au.
Images: Alex Drewniak.