Our journey starts at the very source – the cacao beans. We strive to directly source our beans from small community farms in Peru, Papua New Guinea, and other regions of the cocoa growing world. It is our hope to build close relationships with these farming communities, creating relationships that not only ensure the finest quality beans, but we also contribute to the sustainable development of their communities.
Supporting local farmers is at the core of our mission. We firmly believe in fair trade practices and pay above-market prices, ensuring that farmers receive fair compensation for their hard work. This approach not only improves their livelihoods, but also empowers them to invest in their farms, families, and futures.
We are dedicated to expanding the core of our business that involves directly sourcing cacao beans from small community farms. Through this endeavor, we actively promote environmental sustainability. The farmers we work with employ traditional and organic farming practices, ensuring the preservation of land biodiversity and minimising the use of harmful pesticides. We are immensely proud to support their diligent efforts in maintaining the delicate balance between agriculture and nature.
However, our commitment doesn't stop there. Our next steps is to actively engaged in projects that give back to the communities that nurture our cacao beans. Through collaborations with local organisations in Peru, Papua New Guinea, and beyond, we wish to support initiatives focused on education, healthcare, and infrastructure development. Together with our partners, we aim to create a lasting positive impact on the lives of the farmers and their families.
We are not just dedicated to global impact; we also prioritise supporting our local community. By actively participating in local events, fundraisers, and charities that align with our values, we strive to spread sweetness and joy to both our customers and those in need.
When you choose Federation Chocolate's exquisite chocolates and Every Man and His Dog wines, you're not just indulging in luxurious treats – you're becoming part of a movement that values sustainability, fair trade, and community empowerment. With every bite and sip, you contribute to a better world.
While we may not always achieve perfection at every step, we firmly believe that taking action is more important than waiting for perfection.
As we continue on our journey, we invite you to join us in this delectable adventure, where our love for chocolate and wine intertwines with our deep desire to make a positive impact. Together, let's spread sweetness and create a brighter future.
#SpreadingSweetness #SustainableCacao #CommunityEmpowerment #BeanToBar #EthicalBusiness #federationchocolate
]]>More Tasmanian produce and more local family businesses being supported through our chocolate.
Tasmanian lavender is world renowned. Premium oils are extracted from the lavender flowers that perfume and flavour. Our lavender chocolates are so popular they are hard to keep on the shelf. Dark chocolate, rich ganache and Tasmanian lavender oil from Bridestowe Lavender Farm.
Hazelnuts, we choose Tasmanias finest Hazelbrae Hazelnuts, are the food of the ancients, nutritious, full of protein and energy. Tasmanian Hazelnuts are, in my opinion the best in the world. Complex flavours, they Roast perfectly and match wonderfully with our organic Peruvian Dark chocolate.
Sourcing your chocolate from us supports farmers in Tasmania and Peru.
Available online and at 3 Victoria Street.
Gluten free and vegan friendly this is wonderful food for everyone.
#federationchocolate
#fullbeanchocolate #tasmania
#discovertasmania #hobartfood #resturantaustralia #sydneyfoodie #melbournefoodie #tassiestyle #glutenfreefood #veganfriendly #fullbeanmethod #fullbeanchocolate #tasmanianchocolate
https://www.federationchocolate.com/collections/boxed-pralines-and-chocolates
]]>The INNOV8RS is a national competition to find Australia’s most innovative small businesses.
Read the full article here -
Written by: Cec Busby
Australia has produced a plethora of artisan chocolatiers but what makes our TAS Innov8rs winner stand out from the rest is owner Maurice Curtis’s dedication to the craft. .... With Chooclate created from scratch. It’s a farm-to-table approach that ensures Federation Chocolate has control of the process from bean to bar.
It’s a labour of love for Maurice and his wife Helen, a fellow chocolate fanatic. The duo first purchased Federation Chocolate back in 2014. At the time Federation Chocolate was already a local legend. The factory produced commercial quantities of chocolate and was known for its basic chocolate blocks. However, Maurice and Helen had something else in mind for the business.
The couple decided their Willy Wonka dreams would be made of sweeter stuff. In a quest to turn Federation Chocolate into one of the best chocolate producers in Australia, the pair turned to traditional methods. Nothing is done quickly at Federation. Each bespoke piece of chocolate-y goodness is lovingly made. And it all starts with the cacao bean.
Where other chocolatiers might just melt down someone else’s chocolate to produce their wares, at Federation it’s a painstaking process that begins with bean selection.
“Our cacao beans come from all over the world, from small farms where it is grown ethically and sustainably. The cacao beans are transported to Taranna in Tasmania where we hand sort, roast and break apart the bean, keeping the nib,” explains Maurice.
“We use 200-year-old chocolate-making techniques to make our chocolate.”
And what a technique. The work begins even before the bean lands at Federation. The cacao pods are harvested, pulped, fermented for up to ten days then dried in the sun for a week before being bagged and shipped to Australia.
“Once we receive the beans, we sort and roast them before removing their husks to create cacao nibs. These nibs are then stone ground for a varying amount of time to create chocolate liquor. In the process of grinding the nibs it releases fat from the cacao creating the chocolate liquid,” explains Maurice.
This liquor is then aged for between two weeks or three months depending on the flavour profile and used as the main ingredient in Federation’s chocolate bars.
“Each bean supplier grows their beans in a different region and microclimate. This then translates into different levels of fat and cacao in the bean, which comes through in the flavour of the chocolate liquor. By then managing the length of aging applied to the liquor, we can create some wonderful and unique flavours in our chocolate.”
Tantamount to this process is the sourcing of their beans. While chocolate may be sweet, its production has a long and often unethical history. The Curtis’s wanted no part in this.
“One of the difficult things with the supply chain is you can never really tell where something comes from. A lot of the difficulties with chocolate is a lot of farms where cacao is grown, deal with unethical farming, using child labour and aren’t sustainable.
“So, for us, it became paramount that if we were to sell a product everyone enjoys, it couldn’t cause harm. We trace where every ingredient comes from, making sure that slavery and child labour is not used in the creation of any of our special products.”
The Curtis’s want all Australians to share their passion for ethical and sustainably produced chocolate. To educate the public they have thrown open the doors to their factory. Visitors can see every step of the chocolate-making process.
“We use the opportunity to inform and educate visitors on the process of making chocolate and why small-batch chocolate makers are so important,” Maurice says
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https://www.federationchocolate.com/search?q=Honeycomb
]]>8 May | Chocolate Masterclass with Federation Chocolate at the Cradle Mountain hotel (search their pages for tickets)
https://www.cradlemountainhotel.com.au/festival-of-fagus
@tasmania #federationchocolate #fullbeanchocolate #hobartandbeyond #tasmanianmade #tassiestyle #tasmanianproduce #cradlecoasttasmania #discovertasmania #melbournefoodie #sydneyfoodie #restaurantaustralia #tassiegram
]]>Our chocolate being made into amazing mouthwatering tastebud tingling things.
YES Our chef chocolate is avaliable for commercial kitchens, cafes, bakers, cooks, home dessert queens, anyone who works with chocolate.
Lift your creations to the next level, find your point of difference with our chocolate.
High quality, high in cacao butter, made from bean to chocolate. Our full bean chocolate is made from ethically and sustainably sourced cacao. Coming from small family farms where we work to bring the best cacao beans to Tasmania where we sort, roast and use the full cacao nib to create exceptional flavoured chocolate.
We are a family business creating amazing products. Wholesale enquiries welcome.
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So to do it right you need the best chocolate.
]]>The cacao in this instance is Papua New Guinea cacao sourced from small farm holdings direct from farmer to our hands to create.
It is a creative process from start to finish. From selecting the cacao beans individually by hand, roasting to our profile creating flavour and richness, Pouring the nibs into the stone grinder which releases the flavour and deepens it further and adding just the right amount of sweetness.
Every batch is unique and created by mind, hand and taste buds.
Made in Hobart Tasmania at our chocolate factory
#federationchocolate #beantobar #fullbeanchocolate #thefullbeanmethod #hobart #Hobartcafe #discovertasmania #hobartandbeyond #tassiestyle #tas #tasmania #melbournefoodie
#sydneyfoodie #buyaustralia #buysomethingtasmanian #chocolate #restaurantaustralia #foodporn
Have you tried ruby chocolate before?
If you've never heard of ruby chocolate before there are a few things you should know.
It's pink, this is the natural colour from the cacao bean.
Ruby is the name given to beans that contain chemical compounds that occur naturally in all cocoa beans that in Ruby beans occur in a specific ratio and above a minimum level to help create the ruby chocolate.
It tastes sort of like raspberries, again a flavour enhanced from the cacao beans.
The chocolate contains at least 47% cacao solids, this exceeds most milk and white chocolates (and some "dark" chocolate available in the supermarkets.)
Chef-Line Products are available from our store here
Dark, Milk white and Ruby chocolate buttons are available in catering packs.
We also have our cocoa butter and cacao nibs
Our chocolate contains no palm oil or vegetable fat and is a premium chocolate product to be used in the most magnificent recipes.
We can also wholesale our chocolate, so if you are a chef, cook, restaurant or cafe owner we would love to see our chocolate used in your creations so please contact us. sales@federationchocolate.com.au
]]>Indulgent warming and inspiring this easy to make hot chocolate is a definite favourite.
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After 2 to 3 days of the cacao nibs being made in to chocolate liquor we pour the chocolate out in to 1.8kilo slabs, then the chocolate is aged to allow those chocolate flavours we love to continue to develop.
This aging can be up to 3 months.
The block in the foreground is our 3 month aged slab, ready now to be made into one of our amazing chocolate products. What do you think the white patterning on the chocolate is?
This visit was a last-minute thought. We already pre-booked the Port Arthur Ghost Tour for Sunday at 9pm, leaving the day free, so we decided to travel from Port Arthur back to Hobart for the day. Federation Artisan Chocolate is only a 5-minute walk from Hobart’s Waterfront. There is on-street meter parking available and it is free entry to the store. We didn’t make any bookings but willing to pay for a tour, however their Head Chocolatier wasn’t there – as we arrived at 10am… the doors just opened for business. But Maurice Curtis, the owner of the business, was more than happy to show and tell us all he knows about the history of chocolate making and the process of how chocolate is made – from bean to chocolate, you could see a mapped process displayed, where they make chocolate, through their window into that room as well as the machinery they use. He told us with pride that they make chocolate the way it used to be made 200 years ago. We learned a new chocolate term ‘liquor aging’, which is not what you think, ‘liquor’ is another term in the ‘chocolate world’ meaning liquid. We found Maurice to be sweet and kind to give us a spontaneous personal tour and found him to be very passionate and knowledgeable in the chocolate industry. He assured us that he uses only genuine ingredients with no added essences or oils. He also shared with us that working in a chocolate factory had always been his dream, which he finally made his dream come true by 2014! We then headed to the counter to buy our chocolate treats – Maurice’s wife Helen served us. She put no pressure on us and allowed us to select our chocolates in our own time. Helen was very accommodating in explaining the flavours of the chocolates individually – but still didn’t make our choosing any easier. The chocolate display looked amazing and colourful, very hard to select just a few chocolates – if we could, we would have bought the lot. We ended up buying an assortment of moulded chocolates @ $3 each and couldn’t resist to take them back to our lodge, but ate them on-the-spot. The verdict? Truly delectable. You could actually taste the difference between the cheap mass production and the ‘real’ process. Their chocolates are simply rich in flavour and melts in your mouth. Indulgent experience, especially for the ones with a ‘sweet tooth’. Open seven days a week, Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 9am – 3pm and Sunday 10am to 3pm.
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Recently Hello Hobart visited Federation Chocolate below is an extract of the article written about us.
The full article can be found here
‘Welcome my friends, welcome to my chocolate factory.’ – Willy Wonka
Okay, okay, so we don’t have a golden ticket but we have found the closest thing to Mr.Wonka’s chocolate factory here in Hobart (without the risk of turning into a blueberry)!
In the heart of Hobart lies Federation Artisan Chocolate, a boutique chocolate maker creating delightful treats.
Recently opening up their chocolate-making process for the public to view, Federation Chocolate is a bean-to-bar manufacturer. They have also just opened up a café section, so you can indulge in one of their many treats alongside a house-made hot chocolate.
Federation Chocolate is owned by Maurice and Helen. These two have a passion for chocolate and as they told us, ‘chocolate runs in their veins’.
‘Being a local Hobart boy growing up, our primary school went for a tour of Cadbury. I remember thinking to myself that I really wanted to own a chocolate factory. It took me a while to get there, but I suppose working with chocolate is a childhood dream!’ Maurice tells us with a big smile.
A large focus for Federation Chocolate is sustainable sourcing of the cocoa beans. The beans come in 65 kg bags sourced from a number of farms across the world. Maurice and Helen want to ensure that they have a connection with the farmer and support local cocoa communities.
‘We have families who have been growing in Peru, just off from the Amazon, for over 200 years. They grow everything organically, which is protecting the Amazon from agricultural chemicals leaching into the river.’
Maurice tells us that when the beans arrive they hand sort them to ensure that they are only roasting the best.
‘Because we are buying from family farms, you sometimes get some interesting inclusions in your bag. We have had toys that turn up in the bags even!’
Federation Chocolate isn’t afraid to experiment with flavours. Their chocolatier, Sarah, loves creating new products, even playing with an olive chocolate a few weeks back.
Expect flavours such as chai, fig and rosewater, salted caramel, crème brulee and pear and saffron. They offer sugar-free chocolate, alongside gluten-free and vegan options, so it is suitable for the whole family. Keep an eye out for their Christmas chocolate range launching shortly.
What else can you expect from these chocolate masters?
They offer a ‘meet the maker’ experience, where you chat chocolate and taste the chocolate in each step of the chocolate-making process. Or if you are looking for something a bit more serious, they offer a master class so you can make your own and learn some tips.
For Maurice, owning Federation Chocolate has been a full 360. ‘I now see children coming in all wide-eyed and in awe of the chocolate and I remember that feeling, it takes me back.’
For your next sugar hit visit 3 Victoria Street, Hobart.
Posted by Federation Artisan Chocolate on Tuesday, 20 August 2019
Ruby Chocolate
Ruby is the "fourth" Chocolate type after dark, milk and white.
Amazingly it has been 80 years since white chocolate first hit the shelves and something as new in the chocolate world has been released.. Ruby surprises the taste buds fruity and slightly sour it will remind you of fresh raspberries.
We have found that people who taste this for the first time love the difference to chocolate as they know it and we have had many requested to have some available for purchase for Christmas gifts and stocking fillers.
We have a limited supply for available from our online store and in our chocolate space at our new store at 3 Victoria Street Hobart, Taranna and Salamanca
Market.
]]>We have found that people who taste this for the first time love the difference to chocolate as they know it and we have had many requested to have some available for purchase for Christmas gifts and stocking fillers.
We have a limited supply for available from our online store and in our chocolate space at our new store at 3 Victoria Street Hobart, Taranna and Salamanca Market.