Kineta and the chocolate factory

John McCombe

She Chocolat's chocolatier Oonagh Browne works with chocolate all day long.

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Finding a journalist to go on a chocolate tour was easy; getting leftovers delivered to the office was not.

Kineta and the chocolate factory

We make the pilgrimage to picturesque Governors Bay on a gloriously sunny day. We're bound for She Chocolat, where an afternoon of chocolate education and indulgence awaits.

We are met by She Chocolat co-owner Declan Scott, who serves us She's specialty hot chocolate from a ceramic chocolatière. It's the creamiest, spiciest, most beautiful hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Declan doesn't reveal what's in it, but it tastes like a creamy, chocolate gingerbread man.

Then the lunch platter arrives and, although I'm not hungry, my eyes light up. Everything on the platter is designed to be dipped in the organic chocolate sauce. When I spy blue cheese and fruit on one side and lamb and chicken on the other, I think our Irish host is crazy.

We try salty bread and crackers with the sauce, and She's delectable chocolate-hazelnut spread, but my favourite is the savoury mole. The sauce is made over four days from 27 ingredients, infused with a chocolate swirl, and served with a chicken skewer and Eradus sauvignon blanc. The lamb, served on quinoa with chocolate and date sauce, is also delicious, and matched with a Craggy Range merlot. Thankfully, the platter's portions are small, as the next stop is the chocolate kitchen.

We start by watching a short film on She chocolatier Oonagh Browne's trip to Fiji, where She's cacao pods are sourced. Each pod contains 40 to 60 nibs, which are turned into chocolate through the process of conching and tempering.

Next it's time for the blind taste test. We are given five little bowls of chocolate ranging in price from $2 to $40 a bar, and are taught the etiquette of tasting chocolate. Chocolate has to be pleasing to the eye, must feel and smell good, "snap" when you bite into it to engage your ears, and it mustn't come in contact with your teeth again as it melts on your tongue. I get one of the test chocolates right. The cheapest one: Whittaker's Dark Chocolate Sante bar. Embarrassing.

Oonagh pours chocolate from a massive tempering machine into a metal bowl, then tips it on to a large metal table. She demonstrates how to manually temper the chocolate, testing its temperature by dabbing a little under your lip. I take a sneaky look around the kitchen and feel like I'm in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. There are shelves packed with trays of different shaped chocolates and stacks of boxes ready to sample - which we do.

First we try a Kali, a chilli truffle chocolate named after an Indian goddess and inspired by the film Chocolat. It was this film that spurred Oonagh into working with chocolate.

"That movie spoke to me. It is part of my journey. And it's amazing what can manifest by following your passion," she says, looking around her kitchen. "This is what happens when you jump off the edge and follow your dream."

If the Kali was the very last chocolate I ate, I would die happy, although it would be nice to squeeze in a lavender and blackcurrant one, too.

We head upstairs for the finale - a beautifully presented platter of She's specialty chocolates, cake, and homemade ice cream to sample, but I can only admire. The lovely staff wrap the treats for me to take home as a gift for my flatmate. I am already thinking I'm going to have to train for another triathlon if I ever want to fit into my pants again.

She Chocolat's half-day tours, costing $95 a person, run on weekdays from April 6. Bookings essential. Call She on 329 9222 or book through iSite.