You'll smell it before you taste it.
There's a waft of something smoked under your nostrils.
Chocolate - smoked hāngī style - might be new to many of us, but it makes plenty of sense when you try it.
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It's "The Māori Foodie" Natasha Whitewood's latest creation and after four months of product development, her Reka "tasty" chocolates with their smoky caramel centres are tu meke.
Nō Rotorua mai (made in Rotorua), Whitewood collaborated with Springfield-based business Dangerous Chocolate to bring her interpretation of Māori cuisine to life.
"If I say I am going to do something I will do it. I had a break in my time, so I literally walked into Dangerous Chocolates on Otonga Rd and said: 'I've got this idea, what do you think?'"
By the end of last year the collaborators were "really excited".
Smoking has always been one of Whitewood's favourite traditional cooking techniques and selling food products has been in the back of her mind since competing on television in My Kitchen Rules two years ago.
She also wanted to make a "bilingual product" that helped tell the story of Māori culture, using local businesses.
"For me, what was really important was the authenticity ... It's not just about food but the kaupapa [purpose]."
The gold chocolate design represents the ashy embers from a hāngī.
Whitewood also hand-wove flax and took it to Advocate Prints to inspire the packaging.
"I harvested some flax and I wove a mat to replicate a kono, a rourou [basket]. Traditionally what we would put our kai [food] in."
Dangerous Chocolate owner and chocolatier Sabine Ford said chocolate "will pick up scents and other smells fairly easily" because it is porous.
"That is why it is always wrapped."
She said the "low and slow" hāngī process ensured the smoky flavour was "thorough" and "lingers" in the chocolates.
Ford's role in the "fun project" included moulding, caramel cooking and decorating.
The chocolates are for sale via the Natasha Whitewood website, The Māori Foodie.
He tāwara kāinga (a taste of home).