Since the pandemic started, millions of people have quit their jobs in pursuit of more meaningful occupations, in a trend dubbed the Great Resignation. But Hamish Kelly was a bit ahead of the curve: six years ago he gave up his job to train as a chocolatier and founded Vegan Chocolate Co. He opened a shopfront in Dulwich Hill in mid-2021, in the middle of Sydney’s lockdown.

“I had enough doing boring stuff and wanted to do some real stuff, and I was looking at my options. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m very creative and I’ll go and do things, so I signed myself up to some courses and trained to become a chocolatier,” Kelly tells Broadsheet.

As the name suggests, Vegan Chocolate Co specialises in vegan chocolates, which Kelly makes by hand at the back of the small store. Kelly, who’s transitioning to a vegan diet for health reasons, said it took him three years of testing to perfect his base chocolate recipe, which uses fairtrade couverture chocolate from Ecuador.

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“I’ve spent a long time mastering the recipe, which uses four per cent refined sugar, making it one of the lowest sugared chocolates around,” he says. “I think when you taste the product, you won’t even know it’s vegan.”

Creations range from bars of plain chocolate through to playful takes on classics such as Wagon Wheels. Kelly’s “Wheelie” combines two generous rounded biscuits with raspberry jam and marshmallow sandwiched between them, before the whole thing is hand-dipped into rich cocoa butter. “I got the food technologist who made the Wagon Wheel to help me make the [vegan] marshmallow,” Kelly says.

Other temptations include the chocolate Timmy (a honeycomb-filled layered biscuit like a Tim Tam); V Wafer (layers of wafer and chocolate approximating a Kit Kat); and shiny chocolate bars named Cherry, Coco and Sneaky – respectively Kelly’s vegan versions of a Cherry Ripe, Bounty and Snickers. There are also fruit-flavoured chocolate bars available in passionfruit or raspberry, made with fruit pulp.

The simple storefront features a marbled bench with glass displays, shelves filled with the pre-packaged chocolate bars, and bright burnt-orange-coloured walls.

Beyond the current product line, Kelly is experimenting with making pralines, including one with a vegan chocolate shell filled with velvety hazelnut paste. He’s also playing around with cacao pulp, a natural, honey-like sweetener made from the white flesh that surrounds the cacao beans inside the pod. Opening a second store is also on the cards for Kelly, who’s considering a spot in Melbourne.

Vegan Chocolate Co
360 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill
0405 636 385

Hours:
Mon 10.30am–5pm
Thu to Sun 10.30am–5pm

veganchocolateco.com.au
@veganchocolateco