Melbourne's own bean-to-bar chocolate

Simplifying chocolate is a complex business. It's been 18 months experimenting on small-batch steampunk machinery imported from Europe, but today Monsieur Truffe released a chocolate made from just two ingredients: cacao and sugar. Melbourne's first bean-to-bar chocolate maker, it makes chocolate from the cacoa bean (chocolatiers buy in chocolate buttons and melt them down).

“Making chocolate is an interesting process that we want to share,” says Jade Bentley, chief chocolate maker.

Three “collections”, made from single-origin Madagascar cacao, represent the three stages of chocolate-making: roasting (light, medium and dark); percentage, the ratio of cacao to sugar (60 per cent, 70 per cent and 80 per cent); and conching, the refining process in which the balance of flavour and texture is achieved (24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours).

Each collection includes three 25-gram bars and costs $11.

See monsieurtruffechocolate.com; 351 Lygon Street, Brunswick East and at 90 Smith Street, Collingwood.