New chocolate business has luck on their side

WITH over twelve years of training under her belt, last year Jade Davidson made the leap and opened her own specialty chocolate bar business.

With each product hand crafted from her home in Ballarat, Davidson said the idea for her company, Lucky and James, was something she had in the works for a long time.

“I’ve done over 12 years working in other chocolate businesses in Melbourne,” she said. “I moved here nearly three years ago and I noticed no one else was doing chocolate in Ballarat.

“After my second daughter was born in February, I thought I better do something and worked towards opening it and we set it up and started running it in early November.”

Although finding the perfect name for a business can often pose a challenge, Davidson said that Lucky and James came right to them.

“My husband whose name is Lachie and I travelled a lot pre-COVID and children,” she said.

“When we were in New York, we had ordered coffees and when they were ready the barista was screaming out ‘Lucky and James

, Lucky and James’.

“We realised it was us and I thought that is a good name and write it down and use it one day.”

Having opened the business a few months ago, the product offering has been capped at a comfortable amount of eight milk and dark varieties and one white chocolate.

After her extensive industry experience, Ms Davidson said what she has noticed that offering a quality twist on classic flavours that people already love makes people happy and they will buy again and again.

“The chocolate is from Switzerland that I use because it’s a chocolate that I’ve worked with a lot in the past and that I really prefer because it has a great flavour and is really special,” she said.

“We’ve got fruit and nut, cinnamon pecan, honeycomb, rocky road and then a cookies and cream for white chocolate lovers, and we’ll do short runs of limited edition bars when its seasonal.

“I hand temper it from home and add inclusions like the Grounded Pleasures marshmallows, because it’s great to use local.”

With plans to stock their product around the region, Ms Davidson said the initial response from customers has already been overwhelming.

“The Ballarat community has gotten really behind it, that’s what I love about it, everyone gets on board and supports local and it’s wonderful,” she said.

“Campana’s have been stocking it and it went crazy good there, I was so surprised and so were they.

“I just wanted to make really simple delicious chocolate using really quality ingredients that people are really happy to come back to again and again.”

Purchase a Lucky and James specialty block online at luckyandjames.com.au or at Campana’s.