Find your inner chocolatier

I've long been a fan of the Wellington Chocolate Factory. Their story of how they locally produce bean to bar organic fair trade chocolate is as legendary as their salted caramel bars at Christmas time. Find your inner chocolatier offered a magical hands-on Welly on a Plate experience at this inner city chocolate factory.

Did I mention how delicious the factory smells from the moment you walk in the door? The event began with a private tour of factory. We learned about what bean to bar means for their production line and sampled cacao beans and four different types of chocolate from around the world.

Chocolate sampling

We were shown various machines and gadgets, each one playing an important part in the chocolate making process. There is a window into a small room to the left of the entrance. This is the ageing room, where the chocolate blocks are left for around three months to age before it is tempered and crafted into bars.

Chocolate is left to age, much like wine and cheese

Then, we got to don aprons and sexy hairnets to have a go at making and wrapping our own specialty bars. The machines have names, making them as much a part of the team as the rest of the staff. Betty was busy preparing raspberry milk chocolate for us to dollop into chocolate bar moulds. Luckily she knows the exact amount needed for each mould and will dollop this in when you press and hold the foot pedal. The side tables vibrate. They remove the air bubbles that form and help to distribute the chocolate to the edges of the mould, which is a far more efficient way to do this than dropping a chocolate mould repeatedly on the bench at home.

Betty is tempering raspberry milk chocolate

Tui stands next to Betty and tempers dark chocolate to be made into salted caramel brittle bars. Dark chocolate flows more freely and was much quicker filling these moulds. The bars are flavoured by sprinkling sea salt and caramel crumble on top before leaving to set. I rebelled and made hokey pokey bars. (I'm completely over salted caramel.)

Dark caramel brittle blocks

After a short time setting in the fridge, it was our turn to hand wrap our chocolate bars to take home. It's actually not as easy as it looks to get perfectly straight edges, especially with chunky caramel pieces sticking out the back. (I'm not too good at wrapping presents, either.)

My finished products

We got to take home our four delicious bars and their full range extends to eight varieties. If you're in the Cuba St area, pop around the corner to the Wellington Chocolate Factory and step into a world of chocolaty goodness. I hear their hot chocolates are also magical.

The full Wellington Chocolate Factory range