Sweet success ... champion chocolatier Jodie Van Der Velden of Josophan's.Credit: Quentin Jones
A bespoke chocolatier and an eco-friendly spa are championing a new style of luxury, writes Lance Richardson.
Perhaps Leura is a strange place to found an empire. Residential edges blend quietly into the sprawl of Katoomba next door. But then, if your empire is founded on natural luxury, there's little need for the hubbub of a city. The growing enthusiasm in the Blue Mountains for slow food, sustainability and fresh produce means the scene is set for willing followers. This is a good thing, because Leura has not one burgeoning empire but two.
The first one gathers around Jodie Van Der Velden, so dedicated to her craft she once drove into a power pole due to exhaustion. Some empires, even chocolate ones, are built on the blood of their founders. ''I was committed to the chocolate path from the first day we opened the door in Leura,'' she says. ''If I wasn't, I would have been insane after a very short time.'' She settled for a broken sternum.
Now things are more regulated. The Josophan's banner encompasses a new boutique and ''chocolate laboratory'' in Leura Mall; the original cafe still operates nearby. The exhausting workload has eased off, thanks to the recruitment of Van Der Velden's husband, David Hodgekiss, and training pilgrimages to Melbourne, Paris and Chicago. Last year she won the Australian Callebaut Chocolate Dessert Competition, beating Sydney's best, including Adriano Zumbo of MasterChef fame. But she waves it all away. Today the focus is something new.
We step past the boutique counter and into a large back room filled with tables. Against the walls, in cases, are vintage moulds: a roast chicken, a policeman, a large handgun for special occasions. A pair of perfect chocolate stilettos on the sideboard are whisked away at the call of a customer.
This is the site for ''chocolate covered'' - monthly appreciation workshops that treat chocolate like fine wine. Van Der Velden, brimming with enthusiasm, launches into a detailed description of cacao fruit pods. Knowledge of the source is important, she says. Then she's splitting beans and passing around deliciously bitter nibs, the source of cocoa powder and butter. Her intention is to break the poor chocolate-eating habits of Australians. The allure of quantity over quality must be melted and reformed.
Sheets of paper line the tables, weighed down with a dozen pieces of chocolate labelled carefully with brand and type. Four are marked with a question mark. Here is her empire and admission comes with a taste test.
Van Der Velden's young daughter watches on, mocking her playfully. When the mother rushes out to tend to a customer, my friend asks: ''Are you sick of eating chocola … ''
''No,'' says the girl, dismissing the thought. No, she is not.
And neither are we, even after several pieces. They burst in the mouth, trickling fresh cream infused with Tahitian vanilla or honey and saffron threads. We emerge sated, sucking up the fresh mountain air.
A short jump across the median strip is another burgeoning empire called Ikou.
Naomi Whitfeld reigns here and she speaks with such self-assurance that success seems effortless. ''When all the other girls were at the blue-light disco, I was out in mum's garden, mixing masks,'' she says.
Now Whitfeld and her husband, Paul, preside over tea, jewellery, make-up and eco-friendly cleaning materials, much of it made by Whitfeld and everything carefully selected. Paul trained as a candle-maker in their home kitchen. From home business to hot commodity, they supply more than 200 outlets, including Byron Resort and Spa and Bannisters Point Lodge in Mollymook.
''Before we knew it, we had this whole natural lifestyle company,'' she says.
There is a shop in Leura Mall, almost opposite Josophan's, selling the products but a new day spa hidden up a staircase is the main attraction.
Of course, spas are a dime a dozen, with their water features and wistful panpipe music. What sets Ikou apart are not the ceramics from Thailand or spiral hemp lampshades from the Philippines, as charming as they are. It's the economical approach in an industry centred on indulgence and wasteful excess. A person can fly to the other side of the world and offset carbon emissions. Spas, however, rarely address their water usage. ''There is always an alternative,'' Whitfeld says.
Her approach puts this into action - and not only through a production offset of wind and solar power, ethical selection or even the eco ''rainshower''.
Still riding on the chocolate rush, we are escorted into a dim room for a two-hour ritual, described as ''a degustation of different textures''. First, we are scrubbed with coconut and ground jasmine rice, so fragrant my friend says she feels like a cupcake. Later, when I'm wrapped in organic towels and a heat blanket as part of the wild yam and white flannel flower ''cocoon'', I fall asleep momentarily. Perhaps it is the freedom from guilt; a typical spa wrap uses reams of plastic sheets, which are thrown away after use. A blasphemy here.
Like Josophan's, Ikou is about changing preconceptions. Their objective is ambitious but, after such treatment, I'm open and listening.
Lance Richardson travelled courtesy of Blue Mountains, Lithgow and Oberon Tourism and Tourism NSW.
FAST FACTS
Leura is about two hours' drive west of Sydney.
Josophan's runs monthly ''Chocolate Covered'' appreciation workshops, including tasting. Alternate dates and private workshops are available for groups of eight or more. It costs $49 a person, which includes a $10 voucher for the boutique. Jodie Van Der Velden also runs ''Days of Decadence'' chocolate-making with lunch at Silk's Brasserie (try the Jannei goat's curd tartlet). Phone 4784 2031, see josophans.com.au.
Ikou products are available from the shop at Leura Mall. The day spa is a few doors away. Spa treatments are available daily except Tuesday; after-hours visits by appointment on Fridays and Saturdays. Treatments range from basic massage and facials to extended rituals. The ''Relax: White Flannel Flower Ritual'' costs $250 and includes full-body exfoliation, foot massage and the hydrating ''cocoon''. Phone 4784 3344, see ikouspa.com.au.
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