Daintree Estates chocolate, first Australian-origin chocolate in the world.

Daintree Estates chocolate is the first commercially produced chocolate to be made from cocoa beans grown in Australia.
"Fair trade Australian chocolate is a very different story. Quality chocolate is becoming like coffee. People really want to taste origin chocolate now. So we see great future in cocoa". These are the words of Don Murday Chairmain of the Australian Cane Farmers Association and Director of Mossman Central Mill.

On the 11th November 2011, I first contacted Daintree Estates Chocolate and there for I have to thank a friend of me who was going to visiting Australia, Dirk Hoorelbeke.

First mail to Daintree Estate :

...Yes, Dirk has made some inquiries with me about our products and we have been discussing what and how he can possibly take something back with him from Australia. Our chocolate has a very fruity style flavour. Here is one blog write-up: http://www.chocablog.com/features/daintree-estates-australian-cocoa/ Another chocolate maker in Australia described our dark chocolate as "a unique pineapple flavour note accompanied by hints of liquorice layered on intense chocolate"

From this day on I was very curious to taste thise chocolate, because Australian chocolate is something really special for Europe and of course for Belgium, as they ( the ignorants ) always say the place to be if you want to find good chocolate!

Daintree is a national park in Far North Queensland, Australia, 1,502 km (933 mi) northwest of Brisbane and 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988 it was granted listing as a World Heritage List. The park consists of two sections, with a settled agricultural area between them which includes the towns of Mossman and Daintree Village.

Forged from volcanic eruptions, wildfires, cyclones and climatic upheavals, the Daintree is the
oldest rainforest in the world. Its rich, ancient soils have formed over 135 million years.
The Daintree area is slightly smaller than Sulawesi, the largest cocoa-growing region in Indonesia which has about 400,000 small farms. It shares similar hot and humid growing conditions, with tropical monsoon rains that help cocoa trees thrive.In other words, the Daintree is the perfect place for the new breed of cocoa bean, and an exciting new locally-operated food industry for Australia.

It’s also convenient that Mango Park is situated on the road to our region’s most famous natural asset; the magnificent Mossman Gorge. More than 800,000 people a year go right past the Mango Park gate to see it. So this is the ideal place for the Daintree Estates Interpretive Centre which will be built in the next few years.

My contacts with Tim Davies of Daintree Chocolate Estate became very hopeful after this mail:

...Dirk has arranged to get some of our chocolate, but he wants to keep it a surprise what he is getting J So you’ll be getting some samples upon his return from Australia.

We are not in a position to supply much overseas at this point in time, but since Dirk and yourself have been so nice and shown such an active interest in our new Australian grown couverture, I would be happy to supply more to you in small batches if you find it has the good quality and desirable properties you need to support your own magnificent work...

Good for me to have another friend who was going to be in Australia for some time at this period (Brian), so he would take a box of bonbons as gift for Tim Davies.

His reaction just followed soon after he collect from Brian:
...Wow – today I received the chocolates you sent! Thank you so much – they are just magnificent. I’ve only tasted a few so far...

I received the Daintree chocolate bars and couverture on 24th of December,

FLAVOR: early releases show light white fruits (pineapple, nectarine, lychee) with volcanic / alluvial cocoa deposits running beneath. thanks to Mark from http://www.c-spot.com/chocolate-census/bars/?maker=Daintree+Estates

The bars we are selling for € 6.00 in the shop and they are doing well for the moment and Australian chocolate is rather special.

I like the 70% bar: perhaps a little to sweet, no bitterness and quitte a intensity of cacao flavors (good roast), balance between cacaobutter and mass is nice.

The 44%: for me maybe to sweet but also a nice balance in the structure and a great lenght an exquisite chocolate for milkchocolatelovers.

Ripe Australian cocoa pod growing at Mossman, Queensland

Daintree Estates was established in 2010 by a group of passionate 'cocoa / chocolatephiles' and cocoa growers in Tropical Far North Queensland, bringing together skills of farming, processing, chocolate making and marketing.
Daintree Estates is committed to growing and producing the highest quality cocoa products in the most ethical, environmentally sustainable and equitable ways possible.

"Being a pastry chef with a passion for chocolate creations makes me something of the ideal cocoa farmer. My wife and I are proud owners and operators of Shannonvale Estate, a lovely valley property near Mossman in the hinterland behind Port Douglas (one of the four growersof cocoa beans for Daintree Estate).
I'm very proud to have these chocolate bars in the shop and on this moment I'm stocking as only one genuine Australian origin chocolate outside of Australia!
Pretty sure this won't be for a long time because this Daintree Estate chocolate getting even more better in the near future!
I would like to thank: Dirk, Brian and Tim for helping me sharing this Australian Origin Chocolate of Daintree and I'm greatfull to Daintree for the values they are folowing.

 http://www.daintreeestates.com/

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