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Family Assortment

Article Summary: Haigh's Chocolates is the oldest family owned chocolate manufacturer in Australia. Haigh's is celebrating its 90th Birthday this year.

Haigh’s Chocolates is celebrating its 90th Birthday this year.

Haigh’s is the oldest family owned chocolate manufacturer in Australia. Today, the company is run by fourth generation Haighs, Alister and Simon, with their father, John who is chairman of the board. They have over 100 employees, who are all extremely passionate about chocolate.

Haigh’s was founded by Alfred E. Haigh in 1905 when he moved to Mount Gambier with his wife and baby son, and opened a sweet and ice-cream shop. Business boomed and 10 years later, Alf returned to Adelaide to set up shop in the Beehive building, known as Beehive Corner, where you’ll still find Haigh’s today. There are now six Haigh’s stores in Adelaide as well as five in Melbourne.

What makes Haigh’s unique in Australia is that they are the only local confectioner to make chocolate from scratch. They import the beans, roast and grind them and then conch (stir and beat) them for hours. The end result is melt in the mouth chocolate.

The art of turning a cocoa bean into chocolate involves a number of carefully controlled processes.

First, the beans are roasted at high temperature in a revolving bean roaster. The heat changes the colour and flavour and removes moisture from the bean. The beans are then cracked and the outer husk blown away. Beans are ground into a cocoa liquor which is pressed and mixed with extra cocoa butter and icing sugar. To make milk chocolate, milk powder is also blended in.

A roller mill then refines the chocolate paste to an extremely fine powder. In the conching machine, extra cocoa butter is added and the chocolate paste is then beaten for up to 72 hours in what is the final critical stage of achieving the correct smoothness.

The liquid chocolate is stored in large holding tanks until needed to make one of Haigh’s over 200 varieties of award winning chocolates.

Now to celebrate their 90th year, Haigh’s Chocolates have opened their first Sydney store, in the historic Strand Arcade on the Pitt Street Mall in the centre of Sydney.

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

About the Author:
Peter Shuttlewood
Peter Shuttlewood is the author of webzine freshread which contains articles on Popular Culture with an Australian slant. Freshread - the everyday in a fresh way.