Saturday Morning's Susie Ferguson pops into Baron Hasselhoff's to check out the Easter chocolate. Photo: Baron Hasselhoff's
For many, Easter means chocolate. And for chocolate makers Easter is one of the busiest times of year.
Walking into Baron Hasselhoff's chocolate boutique in Wellington, there is an array of different kinds of the sweet treat on offer.
Espresso, chai, rose and raspberry truffles and rosemary sea salt caramel just to name a few.
For Easter though, specialty hot cross bun chocolate is on the menu.
"We work with the guys at Arobake, they're friends of ours. So we toast [the hot cross] buns they give us, put heaps of butter, grind them up and then fold that through the chocolate," Baron Hasselhoff co-founder Clayton McErlane tells Saturday Morning.
With a background as a chef, McErlane says his foray into chocolate making started as a "happy accident".
Baron Hasselhoff started as a gluten-free bakery in Golden Bay in Takaka.
"We just made chocolate one year for my family ... and everyone really enjoyed it.
"It was probably a very bad chocolate [laughs], it was probably quite embarrassing, but it was more that emotional reaction from people that sparked something," said McErlane.
And if you're wondering what that first chocolate was: "It was probably about the size of a golf ball and it was brandy, cherry and walnut truffle."
Sustainability is a key part of the business and McErlane says they try to source locally as much as possible.
"We're really lucky in New Zealand that in the Pacific they grow amazing cacao. So Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and then we can hopefully have as much of an impact on those communities as possible."
He also recognises that Baron Hasselhoff is a premium product and not accessible to everyone.
"We often have seconds, so anything that has imperfections in it we pop into a basket called 'cost-of-living basket'.
"We have people who come in daily to clear out that basket."
So has the cost-of-living squeeze affected them at all?
"It's definitely tough, we try to look after everyone who works for us as well.
"We're quite lucky within our business structure that we have multiple channels to make money."
McErlane says they sell to wholesale to shops, have their own retail store and also sell online.
Baron Hasselhoff will be releasing its latest flavour creation soon - chocolate with aged cheddar.
"I think it's a New Zealand first, I mean it could be a world first, I'm not really sure but for us, we're always trying to find interesting ways to work with chocolate."
This one in particular is made from one of New Zealand's best aged cheddars and milk chocolate.
"We're super excited about releasing this one.
"In June we've got Chocstock which is in Wellington, so it's New Zealand's largest craft chocolate show ... we'll be releasing it there.
"We're also going to be taking some to America, to a chocolate show in San Francisco at the end of April.
And when asked whether he ever gets sick of chocolate, he says the secret was to have little but often.
