Li Peng Monroe asks if we’ve ever tried bean to bar chocolate before…apparently it’s VERY different to commercially manufactured chocolate. And from this month on, visitors to the Market are welcome to come in for a taste of her amazing new chocolate brand, Jasper and Myrtle Chocolates.

Li Peng is a Canberra based public servant who’s always had a passion for chocolate and was inspired to start creating her own after visiting a bean to bar producer in Western Australia. After much research and trial on the subject, she now manages the whole chocolate making process from her specially built and approved chocolate making set up at her home in Garran in Canberra. She imports cocoa beans from both Peru and Papua New Guinea, the former being certified organic beans, she roasts them, de-hulls them, grinds them into a liquor and then adds other ingredients for more lengthy grinding and aerating process to ensure the result is a creamy chocolate. Small batches of up to 70 bars are made at a time with the entire process taking around two days from raw bean to finished bar. Jasper and Myrtle chocolates will offer nine varieties including Peruvian 66% dark, espresso, classic milk, and white chocolate with sour cherry, as well as their Himalayan rock salt and wakame and milk chocolate with lemon myrtle and macadamia – both of which recently collected silver and bronze awards respectively at the recent Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards. At the Market you can also try the special ‘Silk Road’ – a middle-eastern inspired take on rocky road featuring pistachios, figs, Turkish delight, coconut and marshmallows.

You can find Jasper and Myrtle Chocolates at the Market every fortnight from Saturday 2 April.