The extraordinary story behind this Aussie chocolate brand

Philippe Smets was born in Belgium before moving to Australia, so you could say chocolate is in his veins.

In fact, he says that himself – after all, Belgium is the home of some of the best chocolate in the world.

While he has enjoyed chocolate his entire life, his favourites being dark and praline, it took a serious turn of events for him to make the treat his entire life.

"It started with my life completely changing when I was still living in Belgium," Philippe told nine.com.au.

Philippe was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012 while working as a management consultant. He was 39.

"I didn't see it coming, I had just launched a new project."

It was after a breakfast meeting on the Friday to mark the launch that Philippe started feeling unwell, thinking he may have been coming down with the flu.

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He decided to rest up over the weekend but things became worse, and he developed a high fever. By Monday he was struggling to stand on his feet.

His partner at the time took him to hospital, where after two days Philippe was told he had lymphoma.

Philippe had no idea what lymphoma was and he was still suffering from the effects of a high fever, so struggled to absorb the seriousness of his situation.

He remembers the specialist telling him he had a "very aggressive form" of the illness, which was "good because with chemotherapy we can probably get rid of it and treat it".

Upon hearing the word "chemotherapy", Philippe realised he had cancer.

"That's when you know."

Philippe underwent aggressive treatment for a year and a half, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, with doctors counting on his young age to help him get through it.

Philippe said it took another year to recover after being given the all-clear due to the physical effects of the treatment.

He was unable to work during this time, and found himself reflecting on his career, finding it "didn't align with his values" as it required him to give companies advice on how to downsize staff.

Philippe and his former partner travelled to Australia during this time for a four-week holiday.

"I really loved Australia and the people," he recalls.

They decided that if either of them ever had the opportunity to move to Australia for work, they would take up the offer.

"Lo and behold, three months later [my partner's] boss asked him if he wanted to move to Australia for a project."

They relocated to Melbourne for six months, and then the project was extended to 12 and then 18 months.

Philippe's partner was then offered a permanent position in Sydney, so that's where they went.

Philippe was still recovering from his cancer treatment during this time. Once in Sydney he tried to go back to work, interviewing for corporate jobs as a management consultant, but he didn't find anything he liked.

Soon he found himself struggling with his mental health, and then COVID hit, and after the first lockdown his relationship broke down.

He started seeing a therapist, was introduced to meditation, made some new connections and figured out a new way to live. After cancer and COVID, there was "no going back to normal".

That's when chocolate came into the mix.

Philippe's cancer treatment back in Belgium had been brutal, and he almost died twice.

During his time in hospital, visitors were unable to bring him flowers due to his compromised immune system, so Philippe asked them to bring him chocolate – and there was plenty of good chocolate to be had.

"Because of the chemo I had a very metallic taste in my mouth, and I was craving a lot of sweet things," Philippe recalled.

During COVID, he found himself craving the comfort of sweet things again. But finding high-quality chocolate in Australia proved harder for him.

Then, two videos that appeared on YouTube offered him a solution.

"One was on how to make chocolate, and one was about starting a chocolate business." Chocolate making is rare in Australia, with approximately 38 chocolate makers in the entire country.

He began researching how to make chocolate and several months later bought his first machine and cacao beans.

Today, Philippe uses a drum roaster, then a device that cracks the beans open and removes the inside from the husks, one to grind them down to a smooth consistency and then a mixing machine and a molding machine.

"I've always liked dark chocolate. I wanted to make it into a bar so when you try it you can taste the origin of the cacao," he says.

All of his cacao is ethically sourced from around the world, including Thailand and even in Cairns.

"Cairns is the only place were we have the right combination of hot temperature and humidity," he said.

"It took me a while to master making chocolate. Surprisingly, the first-ever batch of it I made was with beans from Fiji and it the chocolate was nice and smooth and the flavour was amazing."

The next few batches weren't great. They were "greasy" and "not refined enough".

"So I really had to analyse why," he said.

Soon he was able to standardise how he made his chocolate, and that's when he designed his packaging and his molds. This process took over a year.

He launched Chocolat Philippe in 2022 using his signature molds and branding.

It is available in a range of flavours, including dark and lemon myrtle, which is one of his best sellers and uses Australian chocolate.

Philippe's award-winning chocolate is sold at select retailers, food markets and via his website.

"Currently in the Christmas Box I have two internationally award-winning bars, Papua New Guinea and Australian Lemon Myrtle, and Philippines and the Dominican Republic are the best selling bars of the year," he says.

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"In the regular curated box this month is Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Mylk."

Mylk is vegan and made with 52 per cent cacao content.

It is made using oat milk and 100 per cent Australian ingredients – the cacao from Cassowary in Qld, raw sugar from Bundaberg in Qld, and oat milk from TAS.

He is currently developing orange and strawberry chocolate and hopes to perfect these soon, and is also working on creating more chocolate using Australian cacao and "bush flavours".

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