Today Eve had to work, so I hung out at her place by myself until 11:00. Then I had a tour scheduled at the Haigh's Chocolate Factory. The plan had been that I would drive to Eve's school, pick her up, and then we'd go to the tour together. But she was too busy helping with the pancake sale for Mardi Gras so she couldn't come. So I went by myself.
Haigh's is an Australian chocolatier. The business goes back 4 generations. Originally the Haigh forefathers knew nothing about making chocolate. One of their sons was given the option to join the family business (I can't remember what they used to make) or go to university. He decided to join up, but only if he could learn how to make chocolate. No one in Australia knew how to make it, so he wrote letters to 10 chocolateering families in Europe. Only one (the Lindt family) replied, and so he went off to Switzerland (I think) to study chocolate-making with them and to teach their son English in exchange.
After a few years, he returned from Europe, sourced all the machinery that he needed (also from Europe), and started making chocolate. It sold so well, that eventually that became all that they made.
On the tour we got to sample some chocolate, and it was really yummy! We also saw loads of people working by hand to make the chocolate -decorating it, coating it, hand wrapping giant hollow Easter eggs in foil, etc. Apparantly wrapping the eggs is tricky - you can't press too hard or they will break, and you can't handle them too much or they will melt! I also learned about how they make cream filled chocolates: the cream center is whipped up according to recipe and it hardens into a solid. Part of the recipe includes an anarobic enzyme. When the cream center is enrobed in chocolate (it passes under a shower of chocolate - mmm) oxygen is cut off from the center and the enzyme is activated. It then turns the solid into a cream! Fascinating!
Haigh's does not export their chocolates because they cannot control the conditions of the exportation and their chocolate might arrive at its destination not looking so fresh. So there is no way to get it outside of Australia.
After the chocolate tour had finished, I drove back to Eve's school and we went for lunch together, although I wasn't very hungry becuase of all the chocolate that I'd eaten!
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