The first craft chocolate maker on the Northern Beaches, Wembley’s Chocolates opened their factory’s shop front on Friday 20th September 2024
Wembley’s Chocolates are the first chocolate makers north of the harbour who make chocolate from scratch. They’re part of the ‘bean to bar’ chocolate movement that started around 2010 which involves the whole chocolate making process from raw cocoa beans to a finished chocolate bar.
At Wembley’s we only use naturally organic, single estate cocoa beans that ensures a sustainable food chain from grower to consumer. By paying well above Fairtrade and commodity market prices we ensure not only that the actual growers get paid a decent rate for their cocoa beans but also that we get the best cocoa beans available.
In a first for Sydney, all our dark chocolate bars use only 2 ingredients; cocoa beans and sugar. We don’t use any emulsifiers like soy lecithin, extra cocoa butter or vanilla, so this ensures that we get the truest expression of the cocoa beans and the estates they come from.
We source cocoa beans from around the world, including beans from a farm near Port Douglas, Queensland, which means we have the only Australian grown chocolate outside of Far North Queensland.
Wembley’s owner, Josh Stacey, started Wembley’s over a year ago after 25 years in the wine and distilling industry. ‘I see a lot of parallels between craft chocolate making and winemaking. You can’t make good chocolate without good beans, and we use a number of techniques to ensure we’re getting the right flavours from the beans, just as a good winemaker would.’
You can scoff down our chocolate if you want, but you can also take your time to eat and savour the wonderfully complex flavours going on.
Wembley’s ‘Chocolate Door’ opened on Friday 20th September at Shop 1, 650 Pittwater Rd. Brookvale.