Sweet like chocolate
- Words by Peppermint
Jade Anderson takes her chocolate obsession very seriously.
So seriously, in fact, that she’s turned it into a small but thriving ethical business. From her tiny Melbourne kitchen, Jade – a former watermelon farmer with a fierce sweet tooth – uses local produce and manual tempering techniques to create small batches of handmade chocolate goodness under the name Wawa Chocolatier. With their distinctive wrappers and delectable flavour combinations, Wawa creations are garnering plenty of lip-smacking love from customers across Australia – but while Jade’s enjoying the taste of success, she’s also committed to small-scale, sustainable production for a sweeter business model.
When Jade moved from the rugged, dramatic beauty of the Kimberley to the thrumming inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the transition was more challenging than she’d anticipated. Born and raised in Western Australia, Jade moved north to the Kimberley in her early twenties to study horticulture. “I drove tractors and trucks, supervised teams of up to 40 people, took care of bookkeeping and payroll, and was the local beekeeper,” she remembers. “My everyday was diverse and challenging and full of responsibility.”
While the end of a relationship prompted her move interstate, “underlying it was a desire for complete immersion in something new and the need for a creative outlet,” Jade reveals. “I moved to Melbourne with the plan to party hard and learn how to make wedding cakes for 12 months, then move back to WA. But I made great friends, fell in love and ended up staying.”
Nonetheless, things didn’t quite go according to plan. In the city, Jade’s skills didn’t translate – “My options were whittled down to cafe work and basic office admin. I was lost.”
Underlying it was a desire for complete immersion in something new and the need for a creative outlet.
She was also enterprising. If Melbourne wasn’t going to offer Jade the right sorts of openings, she’d create them for herself by starting a business. “I took a job as an office manager for Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School, but I wanted to be in the kitchen more than the office!” she laughs. “I’ve always loved chocolate and am happiest when I’m working with my hands, so it was an exciting idea.” Never one to waste an opportunity, Jade was soon under the chocolate-making tutelage of the school’s founder, Kirsten Tibballs. “Her skills and creative talent are amazing, but she’s also a killer example of a woman in business,” Jade says. “Meeting her and being involved with Savour School was the beginning of Wawa.”
Once she’d kitted out her kitchen with a six-litre melting tank and a marble slab, Jade got down to business. “The longest part of the process was choosing the right chocolate and developing recipes,” she remembers. “Once I could explain to others what my ideas and concept for the business were, the rest was really organic. My close friends, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Gemma Wilson, came up with the designs for the packaging and took care of all the branding. It was a dream process – they’re so damn talented.” Jade was still working three to four days a week, which allowed her to develop Wawa in preparation for its debut at Coburg Night Markets in 2014. “That was the first time I wrapped the bars and sold them,” she says. “It was nerve-racking, but it felt great.”
Read more in Issue 30 of Peppermint – in stores now until the end of August.
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WORDS CARODY CULVER, PHOTOS FOR PEPPERMINT BY LINSEY RENDELL
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TOGETHER WE STITCH RETURNS! 🪡✨
Ditch the dishes. Clear your cutting table. Pop the kettle on. Because Together We Stitch is back from 15 to 22 March for seven joy-filled days of sewing, learning and reveling in the joy of shared community, no matter where you are in the world!
Hosted by Megan from @SewAndTell.Co, this global online sewing event brings thousands of makers together for a week of practical know-how, confidence boosts and those “why didn’t I know this sooner?!” moments.
This year’s line-up is packed with masterclasses and practical inspiration, like:
🪡 Simple knit finishing tricks to make your garments look store-bought by @SewAndTell.Co’s Megan Linley
🪡 Troubleshooting your sewing machine by Jenni Miller from @LetsGetSewingNow
🪡 Hands-on pattern adjustments for sway back from @GinaReneeDesigns
🪡 An interview with Brandon Hayden from @HappilyDressed about building a garment around the fabric you love
🪡 Iron Care 101 by @MicheleMuska
🪡 Kate Boyle from @MindMovementHealth shares posture tips and exercises to help prevent sewing aches and pains
🪡 An easy jeans-to-skirt upcycle project from @LaCreativeMama’s Victoria Martinez Azaro
🪡 DIY custom fabrics and creative craft-room upgrades by Stephanie Young from @So_Stephanie_Says
🪡 Plus choosing prints with intention, making your dream wardrobe a reality, and meeting the creator of Project & Cut, Clinton Blackmore to talk all things PDF pattern future
Together We Stitch is all about expert-led sessions, creative demos, practical tips you can take straight to your sewing table, and a community that celebrates every win along the way. Join live or catch the replays when it suits you.
Head to togetherwestitch.com or hit the link in bio to save your seat. 🪡
#TogetherWeStitch #SewingExpo #SewingInspo #MeMade #SewingCommunity #SewistsOfInstagram
Coffee begins long before your morning cuppa! ☕️
2026 has been declared the International Year of the Woman Farmer, led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the @UnitedNations. It’s a global spotlight with a practical purpose: to recognise women’s indispensable roles across agrifood systems, and to push for the changes that still haven’t arrived evenly, like equal access to land, finance, training, technology and decision-making.
Into that bigger picture steps Elizabeth Duna, a coffee farmer from Papua New Guinea and the chairwoman of the Keto-Tapasi Progress Association. Elizabeth is also the only female chairperson across the @FairtradeANZ cooperative network in the Pacific, overseeing farmers across the association and helping ensure Fairtrade standards are met.
We had the privilege of chatting to Elizabeth (just in time for International Woman’s Day this Sunday, too!) about what’s been growing and changing within her cooperative, what ‘fair trade’ means to her, and the hopes that manifest in a ‘simple’ bag of coffee beans.
Link in bio ☕️
#FairTrade #FairTradeCoffee #InternationalWomensDay
DIFFICULT ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿
The collab we needed for International Women`s Day… and every day!
From @DangerousFemales:
"Hands up if you’ve ever been called difficult behind your back, to your face, or by an Australian Prime Minister during a Q&A?
DIFFICULT by Grace Tame, in her own handwriting is… one word: ICONIC!
100% of profits from our tees are donated, 100% of the time. Funds from this @TamePunk tee will go to @BerylWomen_inc, a First Nations led women’s refuge in the ACT.
Kinda ironic, don’t ya think?
Supporting an org in the parliament state with words from a politician for Australia’s longest running and underfunded women’s refuge.
Thank you @TamePunk for being difficult." 🫶🙌
Link in bio to get behind this tee!
#InternationalWomensDay #DangerousFemales #GraceTame #Difficult
NEW PATTERN ALERT 🎉
She’s giving comfort, she’s giving style, she’s giving palate-cleansing sewing. There’s nothing quite like an easy breezy dress that’s not only a dream to wear but a delight to sew, and the NEW Peppermint Myrtle Shift Dress delivers!
Cute, classic and cool with a touch of retro: the Myrtle Shift Dress is a beginner-friendly make with sleek lines and elegant curves. Bust darts are in play for shaping and spacious pockets to hold all your treasures. Top-stitching detail around the neck and armholes invites creative contrast threads and the keyhole loop closure at the back neck begs for a feature button (or a tie closure!).
Myrtle cuts above the knee with options to customise the length. Don’t think she’s reserved for hot weather either: try a heavier-weight fabric to turn your Myrtle into a pinafore-style garment for layering.
For our fabrics we chose two from @Karmme_Apparel – the bold Rottnest Stripes in a lightweight, soft-drape cotton, and the quality linen in the handpainted Mexico Collection. Karmme also stocks darling tassels so we popped a hot pink one on as a closure!
The love child of Imby Langenbach, Karmme Apparel (fittingly pronounced ‘calm’), is a haven of boho apparel sewing patterns alongside complementary fabrics steeped in tradition with modern iterations from Jaipur, India. Hand block-printed and digitally printed soft cottons produced by Indian artisans showcase rich colours and designs from Imby’s travels, perfect for showing off me-made masterpieces.
Our dresses were superbly stitched by our sewing manager @Laura_The_Maker, and modelled magnificently by Shannon @Pins_And_Tonic and Serah @SerahSews. And that perfect pink wall was courtesy of the good folk at @ShareTheDignityAustralia, an organisation that aims to bring dignity to women, girls and those who menstruate who are experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and period poverty.
Get making the Myrtle – the only question is, can you stop at just one?
Link in bio 🪡
Photos: @KelleySheenan
Sewist: @Laura_The_Maker
Patternmaker: @GarmentaApparel
Models: @SerahSews and @Pins_And_Tonic
Fabric: @Karmme_Apparel
#PeppermintMyrtleShiftDress #PeppermintPatterns
Connection 🫶🏻
Such great ideas from @GrowWithColby:
“A common theme I noticed in 2025:
Everyone is craving more connection.
Use these friend nights to make it happen in 2026.
Send this to the people you want to do these with.”
#Connection #Friends #Community
No bull - these pants are the cat`s (or cow`s) pyjamas...
Jenny from @RhubarbSundays:
And they are done! My @PeppermintMagazine #PeppermintFernPleatedPants made using a gorgeous fabric from @IndyBindyFabrics! I absolutely love this fabric! It’s soft and drapes beautifully. And the best thing about it is that, from a distance, it looks like an abstract print and then you look closer and theres a curious bull looking right at you. 🤣🤣 🐄 🐮
Really happy with the end product. They are very comfy! I didn’t make many changes to the pattern. Just a touch more room in the rise and a little bit off the waist. I’ll post some closeups of the details tomorrow when I actually take them off. 🤣 "
Grab the pattern from the link in bio!
#PeppermintPatterns #IMakeMyOwnClothes #ClothesThatFeelLikePyjamas #SewersGonnaSew
