Good morning!

Today I’d like to introduce you to the Australian Chocolate Farm. When everyone around the world starts talking about this incredible seed to bar chocolate coming from Far North Queensland in Australia, you can say you had already heard of them. Jenny was very kind to let me come by and say hello and gave me a fantastic tour of their beautiful farm. They are about to open up their farm for tours. Even though you can’t buy their chocolate yet, they have already been winning a lot of awards, most recently the World Chocolate Awards. They don’t just know what they are doing when it comes to chocolate growing and making, but they are also chefs and the farm will be home to a cafe. You can read the full interview on the blog.

Read more here

As a reminder, cocoa is grown in Australia, although few Australians realise this. It is grown in a relatively small area between Tully/Mission Beach and Mossman in the state of Queensland. I’ve posted a few articles about my time visiting the area including a chat with Carmen who grows cocoa, a visit to Charley’s Chocolate Factory, and of course lots of hot chocolates.

While in Mossman

• Visit Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest

• While at Mossman Gorge, take a guided Dreamtime walk conducted by the local Indigenous people.

• Take a Daintree River Cruise and go crocodile and tree snake spotting (there are several companies, we took Bruce Belcher & Son and were not disappointed!)

• Visit Mossman Markets on Saturdays from 7am to 1pm to try lots of exotic fruits, hers and spices.

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This Week’s Chocolate News

Chocolate brand Koa uses blockchain to show exactly how much it pays every cocoa farmer

If you are looking for chocolate chip cookie recipes, this book by Jesse Szewczyk is stunning

Autumn means the Americans have started up with their pumpkin shaped or flavoured hot cocoa bombs

And the English do their usual annual run down of the worst hot chocolates available on the market (why??)

5 best hot chocolates in Lyon, France

Oldest cookbooks from around the world

Chocolate beer is a drink made from chocolate too so it qualifies to be included here. Here I a list of chocolate stouts. 

Starbucks settles lawsuit that claims it misrepresented hot chocolate as being made from ‘ethically sourced’ ingredients despite use of child slave labour

And here is Salvador Dali in a chocolate commercial for Lanvin chocolate…

Thanks and have a great week!

Giselle

Chief Chocolate Sipper at www.ultimatehotchocolate.com. Follow on Instagram @ultimatehotchoc