In Australia, we consume roughly 5 kilos of chocolate each per year, making us the second largest nation of chocoholics outside of Europe*. But just how much thought do you give to your choccies as you scoff them down? And what holds this mastery over our taste buds?

• Tour of Hilliers chocolate factory
• Chocolate recipes 

Your favourite chocolate bar most likely began its life in the narrow 10 degree tropical region either side of the equator as a cocoa bean growing on the branches of the cacao tree. Most of the world's cocoa cultivation is in developing, or underdeveloped, countries like Côte d'Ivoire & Ghana.

Cocoa is still very much a cottage industry, with harvesting by hand, drying and roasting by traditional techniques, before being packed in sacks and shipped to confectionary producers around the globe.

Before becoming chocolate, beans are pounded into a paste, known as cocoa liquor, and it is this raw, unsweetened product that is generally imported by our local manufacturers who apply their own recipes & techniques to create the chocolate we love.

Mixed with sugar & milk, it is the amount of the cocoa solids that determines the darkness or bitterness of the end product. For some brands around the world, milk chocolate can contain as little as 10% cocoa, and dark starting from only 35%. In Australia, the consumer's palate is a little more refined with milk varieties in the 20-30% range.

Once the exclusive acumen of a true connoisseur, chocolate's cocoa content is now emblazoned proudly on cardboard wrappers, and a wander down the average supermarket aisle will reveal the supposedly superior products with up to 70% cocoa.

Incidentally, white chocolate doesn't contain the brown cocoa liquor at all; instead, it is cocoa butter or fats that give the flavour and lighter colour.

Unsweetened cocoa liquor

That's all very erudite, but it doesn't explain the magic that the Mayans of 600 A.D. called xocolatl or "bitter water". Could there be a mysterious master of confection who resides within the walls of the chocolate factory and casts a spell over each piece? A peek inside Australia's oldest chocolate manufacturers, Hilliers, might expose the secret.

It is 95 years since Ernest Hillier opened the doors to his soda fountain store in Pitt Street, Sydney, where he sold the first locally made chocolates to the flappers & floozies. Later, during the great depression of the 30's, operations moved to Melbourne and today they whip up 8 tonnes of bonbons a day.

Behind the doors of the North Coburg factory there are no boat rides down a river of chocolate, edible lollipop trees or a maniacal host who tumbles out to greet you with songs of wonder, but there is a wall of sweet air, filled with scents of sugar & vanilla that hits and intoxicates like airborne brandy.

While no orange little people prance about, there is a strong sense of tradition behind the doors - from honouring the recipes of Ernest's day, employing people on packing lines to hand inspect & pack the confectionery, to machines such as the one that mixes the cream filling that can be seen in this promotional film from 1926 and is still in use today.

Nancy Jong who has worked here for 16 years and now supervises the packing lines, says she still eats chocolate. "Oh, I love it," she says. "That's why I work here."

In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't like chocolate. From the top down, the love of chocolate is echoed by all.

Director, Anna Maria Lapentina confesses a personal commitment to chocolate.

"I eat a piece of chocolate everyday. It's true, some days we skip lunch, but we're always filling the bowl."

So what does a chocolate maker do at Easter time?

"Eat chocolate," says Jim Apostolou, the head of the development process. "It's true love."

Perhaps then the proof is in the eating. Some say Australian's scoff down their choccies, while the Europeans savour them.

The experts advise to take a small piece onto the middle of the tongue, letting it melt slowly.

"If it melts straight away - that's the fat," says Sam Piedimonte, Hilliers Managing Director. "If it takes longer to melt - that's the goodness."

Then, the connoisseurs say, to take a breath through the mouth and roll the chocolate around, exhaling through the nose. That is, if you can wait that long!

But for Sam, the rapture is simple. "Think of love," he advises. "That's what chocolate is all about."

*2005 International Cocoa Organization estimates.

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