Heilala Vanilla's sweet success with Whittaker's

Heilala Vanilla chief executive Jennifer Boggiss with a vanilla crop and the finished product. Photo/file

Award-winning Tauranga manufacturer Heilala Vanilla has scored a sales and marketing coup by getting its vanilla included in one of Whittaker's new Artisan Collection range of chocolates.

The range of six 100g blocks features ingredients sourced from artisan producers around New Zealand and the Pacific. Heilala Vanilla is the world's only producer which grows, manufactures and markets its own vanilla.

Two new flavours of Whittaker's Chocolate, one flavoured with Hawke's Bay Braeburn apple with and Te Puna's Heilala Vanilla. Photo/NZME.

The extract will be added to a flavour Whittaker's calls "Hawke's Bay Braeburn Apple with Vanilla in White Chocolate".

Chief executive Jennifer Boggiss told the Bay of Plenty Times Heilala Vanilla had been talking to Whittaker's about the possibility of using vanilla in one of its chocolates since 2008.

"They have their particular flavouring recipes and it's only when they add something new they look at adding another ingredient," she said. "But the timing is good because we are now big enough to supply them."

Heilala Vanilla, based at Newnham Park, Te Puna, moved into a new purpose-built facility last May, which the company said was believed to be the biggest pure vanilla extraction production facility in Australasia.

"Heilala Vanilla products are made from organically grown, bourbon variety vanilla beans from Tonga, and we're excited for Kiwis to taste Heilala Vanilla's first foray into Whittaker's chocolate," she said.

Ms Boggiss, who co-founded the family-controlled company with her husband Garth Boggiss and her father John Ross, said the vanilla dosage in the chocolate would be quite small.

"Probably the most significant thing for us is the co-branding," she said, noting the chocolate would carry the words "Heilala Vanilla from Tonga" on the front of the packet.

"It's all about Kiwi brands helping other Kiwi brands," she said.

She added there was a real synergy between family-owned Heilala and Whittaker's, still owned by descendants of the founders.

Whittaker's marketing manager Holly Whittaker said it seemed a natural step to combine Whittaker's chocolate with the finest in local ingredients with so many fantastic artisan producers right on the doorstep.