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In the early days, Fiona Harrison produced chocolate in a simple way: she'd tip her ingredients into a bowl, and then let it spin in the microwave. The chocolate would melt under the heat of each new rotation – ready to be set in a tray and cut into blocks.
Then she went looking for a stone to cool her chocolate on. "We actually went to a funeral home, to see where we could get a piece of granite," she says.
The DIY chocolatier eventually unearthed a granite slab for resting her just-set chocolate from the bush, which has lots of meaning for Harrison, who is a woman. "That's a real connection," she says.
This was the beginning of her business, which also showcases Indigenous culture in other ways: her blocks are flavoured with native ingredients such as rainforest lime, wild rosella, Illawarra plum and lillipillies.
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But Harrison's chocolate making has evolved since she began Chocolate on Purpose in 2013.
"Now we've graduated to a chocolate-melting tank," Harrison, who's an aromatherapist by trade, says. "You can temper more chocolate, but it's still literally ladled into the mould."
She also uses a stone bench for her just-tempered chocolate, which didn't require any funeral-home connections to acquire.
While her chocolate is still very much made by hand in the small town of in central NSW, several wildcards over the past few years – bushfires, floods and COVID-19 – affected Chocolate On Purpose in challenging and surprising ways.
"When the bushfire hit, the road to Sydney was closed regularly and without notice. So people gave up trying to come up here. Business more than halved. The markets weren't very busy," she says. "Then COVID hit and then the markets stopped."
"Everything dropped off," she says. "So we had to reinvent ourselves."
Harrison improved her online store and tapped into the many social media initiatives that had emerged to support bushfire and pandemic-affected businesses, and saw great support.
Chocolate On Purpose's range includes white chocolate squares flavoured with along with dark chocolate seasoned with native pepperberry and wild rosella – sweets that have a lingering impact after you savour each block. For NAIDOC Week 2024, she also made a limited-edition special bar.
"Chocolate On Purpose is more than just confectionery," she says. "This chocolate enables us to have the conversations about the wisdom of First Nations people and their use of Australian botanicals, so they're recognised for their wisdom and appreciated for their culture. We see that as a small cog in the wheel of reconciliation."
This chocolate enables us to have the conversations about the wisdom of First Nations people.
Native ingredients also have astounding nutritional benefits. Davidson plum, for instance, has the amount of vitamin C in oranges, and Harrison will happily talk about how they can assist people undergoing chemotherapy or experiencing other health issues. “We really have a wealth in our Australian backyard,” she says.
Then there's also the joys of these bush foods' flavours.
What do lillipillies taste like when they're added to her chocolate? "Like mulled wine, like Christmas and Easter," she says. Some people will be reminded of cloves, while others will taste ginger.
The is "tangy" while rainforest lime is like a "high note, it hits you straight away", she says.
The in her dark chocolate can't be compared to the firepower of chilli or the pungency of garlic, the chocolatier adds. "It's warming on your palate … Normally that's the one we ask people to taste last, because that warming on your palate – that just stays there and it's quite pleasant."
For Harrison, Chocolate On Purpose isn't just about showcasing native ingredients; it's also about supporting the Indigenous communities around Australia who source these wild foods.
"The sad thing is only of Australian botanical food businesses are owned by Indigenous people. There's an organisation called and they've been set up with the intention of increasing the ownership, so that Indigenous people can become the stewards and directors of this industry," she says.
"It's really important that Indigenous people use their wisdom and knowledge of country to grow these plants."
Harrison is also proud of Chocolate On Purpose's achievements - it was chosen by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council to be part of the Indigenous business incubator, and the company's ruby chocolate was a finalist in the Clean + Conscious awards 2024.
