CAFÉ SCENE

RATIO COCOA ROASTERS

186 Sydney Road, Brunswick, Melbourne, Victoria, 3056 Open Thursday to Saturday 10am to 9pm, Sunday 10am to 5pm (03) 9388 8920

Coffee lovers – take everything you know about beans and reset.

A visit to the newly established Ratio Cocoa Roasters is an educational – and delicious – experience that celebrates a bean of a different kind – cocoa.

This is no Cadbury factory. In fact, tasting Ratio’s chocolate may change the way you view a Freddo Frog forever. This is Melbourne’s first dedicated specialty cocoa venue, and it’s got customers intrigued.

Ratio Cocoa Roasters uses traditional chocolate-making techniques and sources the world’s best single origin cacao beans to bring customers handcrafted chocolate.

There’s a repetitive pattern for new customers to Ratio. First, they gaze curiously through the glass doors. Then, they stop in their tracks, peer in, take a first step into the venue and say, “wow, it smells incredible in here”, to which venue manager Martin Pearson’s responds, “there’s no calories in the smell”.

Martin’s wit is matched by his extensive cacao knowledge and he happily takes guests through the roaster’s bean to bar chocolate concept. It begins with the sorting table overlooking a giant cocoa flavour wheel of characteristics similar to coffee: floral, fresh, roasted, earthy, spicy, nutty, and fruity.

At the sorting table, cacao beans are hand picked for defects. The good beans are then roasted on an antique 12-kilogram ball cocoa roaster before being cracked and