Wayne Raven Chocolate

Wayne's Story

Wayne Raven offers delicious chocolate treats to customers at Grey Lynn Farmers Market on Sunday mornings.

Where did you grow up?

In Taranaki – New Plymouth. I’m from small town New Zealand.

Oh – you have a North American accent and refer to lengths in feet instead of metres.

I lived in Canada for 13 years and I still have some Canadian habits. My wife is Canadian.

Where did you meet your wife?

In a backpackers in Manly, Sydney.  She was on a working holiday, and I was on an Aussie adventure.

What did you train as?

My foundation was in cheffing and patisserie. One of my tutors had worked in London as part of the Queen’s patisserie brigade. That experience inspired me and gave me a start making chocolate.

Is that what you did when you moved to Canada?

I started working as baker in Calgary, but the pay wasn’t enough, so I trained as a professional driver and drove large trucks across Canada and into the US.

That’s different from patisserie.

Yes. Making Chocolate was my hobby. I took lots of courses, including a course with Bernard Callebaut, one of the world’s premiere chocolatiers. I learnt a lot from Bernard.

What brought you back to New Zealand?

Family – we wanted our four children to spend time with their New Zealand family. I was pleased to leave the extremely cold winters behind and I wanted to bring my chocolate making skills back to New Zealand.

And the hobby has grown into a full-time business

Yes – one Christmas, I made chocolate presents for everyone. It was a big hit, giving me confidence to attend the chocolate and coffee festival last year. I handed out a lot of samples and got very positive feedback, so we created packaging. Now I’m selling my chocolate online and at Grey Lynn Farmers Market.

Tell us about your chocolate.

Cocoa solids (cocoa butter and cacao beans) and milk are the top ingredients. One of my milk chocolate is 41% cacao, compared to many big brands being around 30% cacao. Sugar always comes in third which is why my philosophy is “Sugar is never first”. For me, sugar should be treated like a seasoning to bring out flavour without dominating the taste.

What flavours do you make?

Milk chocolate, dark milk chocolate, white chocolate, and matcha. I’m also experimenting with making a darker chocolate because some market customers ask for it. Some weeks milk chocolate is the most popular, other weeks there is a run on white chocolate.

Is white chocolate really chocolate?

Yes – it is made with cocoa butter and milk. Market customers are pleasantly surprised by the taste of my white chocolate because they expect it to be very sweet but ours has less sugar than many other white chocolates.

Where does your cocoa come from?

From the Solomon Islands and I’m exploring other Pacific sources. It’s important to me that the farmers get a good deal so that they can take the time to ferment the beans properly.

Cocoa beans are fermented?

Absolutely – fermentation is a critical part of the flavour process. Farmers scrap purple beans into wooden boxes with some of the white flesh from the pods. Beans are rotated daily for a week until they turn brown. When we get the dried beans they have a vinegary smell which evaporates when I roast them.

What happens after roasting?

I bring a few roasted beans to the market but most are cracked and winnowed so that I can separate out the papery husks to release the nibs. The refiner squashes the nibs between granite wheels until the particles are too small to detect in tasting. This is a mix of cocoa solids and cocoa butter – it’s the main ingredient in my chocolate so it’s important to get good beans and roast them well.

What happens to the husks?

Nothing goes to waste – the husks make a delicious tea. Some people add honey and milk, but I enjoy it plain.

Do you have any other hobbies?

I love cooking, baking, and experimenting with new recipes. We have a busy home with four teenagers and they love taste testing my products.

As published in Ponsonby News : September 2026