Gabriel Chocolate

A cacao bean arrives at Gabriel Chocolate raw. Everything that turns it into a bar happens at the company's own factory in Metricup. Each batch is sorted by hand, roasted, then winnowed to leave the cocoa nib. The nibs are then ground and refined into chocolate. That is what bean-to-bar means, and the company describes itself as the first chocolate maker in Western Australia to work this way.

The company says it began with its founder's curiosity about how chocolate is actually made. The chocolate maker named on the site is Gabriel Myburgh.

The beans travel a long way to get here. Gabriel Chocolate sources cacao from countries including Indonesia, Venezuela, Uganda, Peru, Ghana, Madagascar, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador. Rather than blending them into one house flavour, it sells single-origin bars from each. The appeal is in the comparison. A Peru bar and a Ghana bar come out of the same factory by the same process, so what separates them is the bean.

The dark chocolate runs from 58 per cent cacao up to a 99 per cent bar, and there are milk chocolates and a white chocolate as well. Around the bars sits a small pantry shelf: cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, drinking chocolate sticks, hot chocolate powder, and chocolate chip cookies under a line called Gabriel Home Bake.

The factory used to be in Yallingup. In 2024/2025 it moved about 12 minutes away to Harman's Mill Road, Metricup, alongside a macadamia farm. The new site joins the factory to a cafe, where visitors can try the company's hot chocolate, a chocolate chunk cookie, chocolate-inspired gelato and coffee. Check the maker's site before visiting.