IT was on doctor’s advice that Sarah Wheeler started her chocolate habit.

Nine years ago, as a tired older mum, she went to see a nutritionist, who recommended she cut out grains, sugar, processed food and eat only meat, fish, nuts, fruit and veg, and -wait for it – 50g of 85% cocoa chocolate daily.

It was one of the easiest diets she ever went on, thanks to the chocolate: “I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself at all because I had this lovely treat every day,” she said.

A year later, she’d regained her energy, and her fertility levels skyrocketed, allowing to have another child.

It was also the beginning of a love affair with making her own chocolate – and particularly chocolate with as little sugar and processing as possible.

She gradually developed her own style of chocolate, which was organic, dairy free, cane sugar free and gluten free. It was just as delicious, but much healthier than any commercially available chocolate.

It contained just four ingredients: raw cacao butter, raw cacao powder, freshly scraped vanilla beans, and dark agave syrup.

At first, she made it just for herself, friends and family, but things changed after a holiday in London, where she took a chocolate making class with one of London’s top chocolatiers:

“So we started the class and he tells us we’re going to make this single origin chocolate or whatever it was,” Sarah explained. “And then, he just poured out all these chocolate buttons into a pan.”

“I was like: “aren’t we going to make chocolate?”

“And that’s when I realised what I was doing was really very special because most chocolatiers actually use this couverture chocolate that’s already made. They melt it and then they add sugar and milk and whatever else.”

The next day, at the chocolatier’s request, she found herself giving her own chocolate making lesson.

It gave her a big confidence boost, and on her return home to Wilson’s Creek, Sarah started a stall at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market.

Puremelt Chocolate has since become one of the market’s most popular stalls, supplying chocolate lovers with hand made organic chocolates flavoured with goodies such as fresh raspberries, citrus and macadamia. Customers also keep coming back for Sarah’s home made fudge, chocolate brownies and chai flavoured with fresh vanilla.

Sarah says she loves that she has created something that is both nutritious and delicious. She says raw chocolate is full of health-giving properties, and contains more antioxidants than green tea,  blueberries or red wine.

“And because everything I sell is cane sugar free and gluten free and organic, a lot of people that can’t normally have delicious treats, can,“ she said.

Story and photos by Kate O’Neill.