Chocolate Heaven

Manda writes:

Haigh's chocolate is considered by many as the best-tasting chocolate in Australia. Its customer-base is solely concentrated in the south, with just eleven retail outlets in the states of Victoria and South Australia. The family business started off in 1915 and is currently owned by the forth generation of Haighs. In the beginning the founder, great grandfather Haigh, was a novice in this field and had written to several chocolate manufacturers to ask for advice. Out of the ten letters sent, Lindt, an already-successful Swiss chocolate manufacturer, were the only people to write back. They even offered great grandfather Haigh an apprentice role, training him up, withholding no trade secrets. Such generosity and openness were even uncommon in those days. Lindt did not feel threatened by a fledgling business venture and were only too happy to help.

Continuing the Lindt genorosity, Haigh opens its doors to the public every day, and today we joined a free tour of the factory grounds, with complimentary hot drinks and free tastings to boot. We followed a guide who gave us a brief history of the Haigh empire, the rundown on chocolate-making, accompanied by commentary about what we could see taking place down on the factory floor. We watched chocolate almonds, honeycomb block, rocky road and rum truffles being made. I was surprised to learn that all the ingredients are made in the kitchens, including the marshmallows and honeycomb. No cutting corners in this place!

We watched Suzy, who has been working there for thirty years, skilfully mixing up honeycomb and chocolate. It reminded me of how builders mix cement with a trowel on a board. The workforce of thirty are multi-skilled and job rotation allows them to perfect other skills but it'll still take a while for others to get as good as Suzy!

Manda biting into some Haigh's chocolate honeycomb block.

The tour and optional chocolate-buying afterwards doesn't take long - just over half an hour - but it's still a worthwhile diversion for anyone staying in Adelaide for a while, even if you have done a similar tour before. If you were in the area and had any doubt, you could just walk past the building and smell the delicious chocolaty aromas streaming out of the vents - I think you would agree, it's very difficult to resist!