Make Your Own Chocolate in Invercargill – Day 158

Today we are going to be making some seriously good chocolate. Thank you for walking past me and doing that.

We are in Invercargill where we’re going to the seriously good chocolate Company and we’re gonna be making our very own chocolate. But Robin is pretty sick at the moment so hopefully he’s not going to offer his chocolate.

And I’m going to get to try Laura’s chocolate as well. No. I’m sick though. Shut up. Be nice. You’ve got man flu there’s nothing wrong with you. Wow. Wow.

That’s right, today I’m having a pretty bad flu again so had to cancel surfing once more but there is a silver lining. We are going to be making our own chocolate. That’s an awesome indoor activity to do in Invercargill. And as soon as we arrive at the Seriously Good Chocolate Company we meet Jane.

Jane, can we start with the basic? Can you tell me what’s inside chocolate? Like how do you? Because we are good chocolate eater but we have no idea what we’re eating. So there’s cocoa there is milk there is sugar, there’s emulsifiers there’s cocoa solids, cocoa butter. I can show you some cocoa butter…

Jane is showing us all the ingredients involved in making chocolate including the delicious fillings as well. And then we’re doing a bit of a tour of the chocolate factory which involves of course sampling some chocolates.

There’s rows and rows of chocolates and I feel like I’m in chocolate heaven right now.

Mmm melt in your mouth. That is some seriously good chocolate.

Mmm. That’s my kind of chocolate.

We’re trying mint dome.

Jane also puts fruit in her chocolate. And if you’ve ever wondered how that’s done. Well Jane is showing us right now. So she has bags and bags of freeze dried fruit and this is exactly how they get fruit in chocolate.

Instead of dehydrating the freeze dry takes all the moisture out keeps the nutrition in and last 3 or 4 years. So you plop this one in the water it will just. Yeah. What? Go big? Or at least 95%. Revives.

Can we put one in the water? I want to see how that works. Yeah. I’ll go get a glass.

It’s quite incredible to see those pieces of grape that went from the size of a blueberry to full grown grape. It’s awesome.

Jane also takes the time to show us a few of the Christmas packaging for her chocolate. they’re really funky I really love them. But let’s get right to the meat and let’s start making our own chocolate.

We’ve made the mix and you’ll fill it. But take it to the top cos if you take it to the top you won’t be able to put the layer on top so that’s what you’re gonna do over here on the machine. And then we let it set. Go away have a coffee and go and do other things. I don’t close till one 1-30 come back and we’ll bag them up and you’ll take them home.

Jane has already lined up the moulding trays with a thick coating of chocolate and the next step is to create the filling Laura and I have chosen the same filling which is strawberry it’s going to be really awesome then we fill up those trays one by one. The next step is to ad some chocolate to our chocolate so we’re adding some little pellets of white chocolate into the strawberry gnash just to make this chocolate even more chocolatey. Then we move onto the next station.

And now we are moving onto my favourite part of the chocolate making process which is coating our chocolates with that final layer of milk chocolate. Jane is going first giving us a demonstration of how layer our chocolate. So she is making it look super easy as she is using a scraper but any wrong touch with the scraper and it could be just taking the chocolate right off it.

But the lesson is moving on quickly and it’s our turn so Robin is going ahead and putting that try underneath the amazing chocolate waterfall and then my turn to scrape away any of the excess which is a little tricky to start with.

But now we are leaving our chocolates to cool and while we wait we going an eat some chocolate in the cafe.

You know how much I love hot chocolate right? So Laura is having the most epic hot chocolate ever. And I, because I’m sick, am getting some hot water with lemon and ginger in it. It’s absolutely unfair.

This is the most decadent hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m making sure to make Robin super jealous.

Needless to say that I’m green with envy and my little ginger tea is looking really pale compared to the thick rick chocolate happening in Laura’s jar.

But our chocolates are already ready to be taken out of the fridge so we are heading back toward the kitchen.

It’s with a little bit of brute force that we’re getting the chocolate out of the mould and then we’re moving onto the packaging section of the tour. It’s a very easy one we just press on the peddle with our foot and we’re getting those chocolate bags fully sealed.

It was an awesome thing to try right here in Invercargill. I’ve never made sweets myself and I feel really proud to have those ones. I’m gonna keep some aside for friends and family so I can give it to them during the holidays.

Alright so we just finished making our own chocolate at the Seriously Good Chocolate factory and we got an entire bag worth of chocolate. It’s actually heavy. there is a huge amount of calories down there. I’m telling you it’s even hard to carry in my hand. So I can’t wait for it to be on my hips. We’ll even the weight distribution. Exactly I feel.. I think it should be used to lower my centre of gravity. And for this reason. Thank you seriously good chocolate company. You’ve made my day.

Do I have any on my face? Nah you’re fine. Are you sure? I feel like I might have some. I do I have a little bit don’t I? So much on your fingers as well. This is what happens when you make chocolate yourself.

No no, that’s just you trying to eat one hot chocolate.