This Beautiful Box of Chocolates Is a Tasty Representation of Sydney's Culturally Diverse Suburbs
St Leonards' Bakedown Cakery used data from the Census to create the limited-edition Not a Single Origin box of chocolates.
UPDATE: APRIL 17, 2018 — All the Not a Single Origin boxes have sold out (and eaten, we assume), but you can pop your details in here to be notified when more are ready to be shipped.
Sydneysiders appreciate great chocolate as much as anyone, but this data-driven box of chocolates doesn't just taste great — it also gives an insight into the vibrant communities that call Sydney home.
Created by the artisans at St Leonards' Bakedown Cakery, Not A Single Origin is the result of a year-long collaboration with data visualisation specialists Small Multiples, who used the 2016 Census to explore the relationship between ethnicity, population and taste. While it's not the first time Sydney's suburbs have been the inspiration for a line of chocolate, it's the first time hard data has been used.
More than 200 different ancestries can be found in the communities of Sydney's diverse suburbs, with this collaboration presenting tastes of 12 of Sydney's most 'culturally saturated'. From Rooty Hill's strong Filipino community to Hurstville's Chinese ancestry and Manly's Scottish population that approaches almost 9000 people, Australia's cuisine is indebted to hundreds of migrant communities.
"This project has shown us that no matter where you live, from Concord to Cabramatta or Greenacre to Manly, immigrants have helped define places with their cultural traditions exemplified by the flavours they brought to the Australian palate," says Small Multiples co-founder Jack Zhao.
Bakedown Cakery's Jen Lo studied each suburb's unique palate of spices and 'native' ingredients to create the Not A Single Origin collection. While Westmead's Indian influence lends itself to a chocolatey blend of cardamom, coconut and cashew, Concord's Italian community morphed into a chocolate flavoured with strawberry and a tart balsamic vinegar caramel.
The collaborators went the extra mile for the design of the 12 neatly packaged chocolates with the suburb's mapping data 3D printed onto each tasty block, while the vivid packaging used custom 'algorithmic wizardly' to transform photos of the ingredients into a mass of colourful gradients and clusters.
Perhaps the sweetest presentation of data you'll ever see, limited boxes are available for $40 each from notasingleorigin.com.
Head to Small Multiples to see more inventive data breakdowns, or find Bakedown Cakery's tasty treats at 62 Atchison Street, St Leonards.
Images: Hilary Cam Photography.
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