It may sound like a slice of heaven, but trying to find the best chocolates, cheese and ice-cream in Australia is surprisingly hard work.
After a day of tasting 60 entries that range from the best to the worst of Australia's chocolates, award-winning chocolatier Jodie Van Der Veldenoften feels like throwing up.
"You feel like you really want to vomit. Palate fatigue is a big issue," she said, recommending green apple and mineral water as a palate cleanser.
Ms Van Der Velden trained in France, and her company Josophan's Fine Chocolates in Leura has won the gold medal twice at the Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Produce Show. She gave up competing to volunteer as judge. Now in her fourth year, she explained the difference between a great chocolate and a bad one as she tasted entries in the 2015 show organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW.
The first was a nearly fluorescent-coloured chocolate filled with a caramel ganache flavoured with the Asian citrus, Yuzu. "You see here we have a chocolate that has a snap and a shine. When we cut it open, there is a consistency of thickness," she noted. It was the best so far that day, she said.
Another was a throwback to the 1940s, with uneven and poor quality chocolate filled with a sugary fondant that was difficult to swallow. The judges moved along the boxes presented in anonymous orange boxes with fanciful labels. One contained pink hearts, another said its filling was "enrobed in milk chocolate". Many didn't live up to the marketing.
Meanwhile in a room upstairs from the chocolates, judges tasted unusual blends of ice-cream, including chocolate with rosemary and chocolate with grapefruit. There were also a range of chunky peanut ice-creams. One judge said contestants were mixing too many flavours.
Last year's Sydney Royal Champion Gelato winner, Cow and the Moon from Enmore, also won an award for best gelato at the Gelato World Title in Rimini, Italy.
This week judges have tasted (and spat out) 900 entries competing for gold and silver medals at the show, including best cheese, including labneh and quark, best gelato and icecream, best yoghurt and butter. Labneh is an old cheese but a new category in the show, along with sorbet.
Mark Livermore, dairy expert and chair of judges, said milk had "bounced back" with more than 100 types of milk, including about 25 flavoured milks, entered in the competition. It wasn't quite like tasting wine, but he said different milks had distinctive tastes determined by the grasses eaten by the cows.
The winners will be announced on Monday night.
