Is this Australia’s top choc state?

When too much sweet stuff is barely enough, follow Fiona McIntosh’s chocolate trail around South Australia for the full range of drool-worthy treats

Escape

AT one end of my taste spectrum is rice pudding.

This nasty concoction makes me nearly pass out with horror at just watching someone else eat it.

Let’s not even tiptoe towards what it used to do to my nervous system during school dinners in the 1960s when the all-powerful dinner lady, Miss Andrews, could make me sit and stare miserably for a whole hour at a plate of the revolting white glob and its nasty dollop of jam. And if the mere mention of rice pudding brings on my gag reflex then winking at me seductively from the other end of the spectrum is my favourite food … chocolate.

And so with joy I embarked on the McIntosh Chocolate Trail around South Australia to offer the visitor something fresh to consider for their next visit. And, while Haigh’s Chocolates is Australia’s torchbearer for fine commercial chocolate since 1915 — and rightly so — SA’s chocolate artisans are following its inspiration.

They’re all talking bean to bar and espousing knowledgeably about single origin cocoa beans with the same reverence that you’ll hear winemakers speak about their vintage, or coffee producers about their roast.

Koko Black (10 stores) has just opened a beautiful salon in Rundle Mall and Bracegirdles has opened its third store in McLaren Vale but my benchmark for artisan chocolate in this state is Steven ter Horst, now in stylishly industrial-looking premises on Rundle St in the City where he is serving beautiful coffee and amazing, genuinely European-style hot chocolate for clients to enjoy with his exquisite chocolate desserts.

I defy anyone to eat Steven’s Chocolate Cloud ($9) and not drift away on a groan of pleasure. Beware the Salted Caramel Tart … it will become an addiction, which explains why he and patisserie partner Chantelle Giardina plan to bottle and sell the caramel soon.

His handmade chocolates taste as sophisticated as they look with only the finest and best organic raw materials used.

Head across the road to the The Chocolate Bean in Ebenezer Place where the younger set hang out for their mostly gluten- free and/or vegan-friendly fix of everything from Ainslee DeWet-Piper’s long list of chocolate cocktails, to Belgian chocolate soup and an over-the-top, messy but fun signature dish of Chocolate Filth for $22 that comes on mismatched crockery.

For the older, discerning palate I say head for the Chocovino Experience at the Hahndorf Hill Winery in its glass Tastings Box overhanging the vines.

Dee and her team will not only educate about the world of chocolate but you will taste the world ranging from our own, impressive Daintree range of single origin through to Amedei from Italy — considered the finest chocolate in the world — made from cocoa of Chuao, Venezuela where the village women dance on the beans.

My tasting square was everything I love in chocolate including a gentle acidic finish.

Coupled with this journey into chocolate is a wine tasting of Gruner Veltliner and a single vineyard shiraz together with a cleansing bottle of the world’s cleanest sparkling and still water from Cape Grim in Tasmania.

Get used to talking about chocolate with that whole terroir concept of the region offering up its flavours from fruits and tannins through to spices and acidic qualities.

It is a special, different and thoroughly relaxing experience that’s worth its $25 price tag for the pleasurable surrounds and especially on an autumnal day. Purely chocolate options from $15.

And while in Hahndorf enjoying its eclectic main street, Chocolate at No. 5 is where Alison Peck and Sarina Waterman will treat you to everything from chocolate Belgian sugar waffles dessert to a blood orange balsamic caramel single chocolate to knock your socks off.

All their awards are on display in their cute cottage.

Keep moving, the trail stays hot at Red Cacao in pretty Stirling village where Marcus Booth-Remmers and his German partner Yvi are passionate about the chocolate and coffee experience drawing on their training in Europe with a bent for single origin chocolate and coffee.

They will match both to suit your palate for as little as $8.50 in cute garden surrounds.

A range of good-looking — and even better- tasting — handmade chocolates are on offer, boxed beautifully.

Still in the Adelaide Hills — gorgeous in autumn — call into Just Bliss where Jay and family are powering in small production of handmade chocolates that aren’t the relentless offering of flavoured truffles and pralines.

Drop into their salon as you crest the hill into Summertown.

Further afield I can recommend from rich experience the award-winning Minlaton Chocolates on the Yorke Peninsula.

Leanne and Jose Milhano (Jose grew up next to a chocolate shop in Paris) are making European-style chocolates like boxes of jewels, and offering sophisticated flavours from aniseed to native quandong. They create fresh chocolates daily but are only open Wednesday-Saturday.

Not to be missed.

While it’s true that in Paris or Brussels where the most beautiful chocolate salons show off my favourite food in glorious fashion, eg. Pierre Herme, Pierre Marcolini, respectively, our chocolatiers are growing up fast — go experience them for yourself.

TOUR DE NOVEL

The French Promise, a sequel to Fiona McIntosh’s best-selling novel The Lavender Keeper, has been released in paperback. McIntosh’s new novel continues the tense tale that began in France under German occupation during World War II and brings the story to 1950s Australia before returning readers to 1960s Europe. Fiona is hosting a Lavender Keeper tour to Paris and Provence in July, and a Lavender Lovers tour to Tasmania in January 2015 so readers can walk in the footsteps of the characters and share the meticulous research for the books on location.

More: fionamcintosh.com