fixation, pixation, taxation, relaxation

'Almost always, when meeting someone for the first time, I'm asked how did I actually start out making chocolate. I usually tell them when I was 10 I read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and swore that one day I would find a river of chocolate and sail in it..

I also tell them about Anna who was my first love and who could not fall asleep without eating a piece of milk chocolate before going to bed, because she would have bad dreams other wise..

But the truth is that I wanted to be a writer. One who gets up at noon, sits in cafes, writes until the morning and devotes a book to an impossible, eternal love.

At the age of twenty, I thought that in order to get inspiration for my first novel I needed to be alone. I needed to walk in narrow streets, sit in a dark room with a candle, feel the longing and write... Later I searched for romance to get inspiration. I wanted to live in a small house, ride my bicycle to work, make colourful sweets in big jars and write. I opened a chocolate workshop. People fell in love with my reality movie and I was living the magic of romance, yet I was making so many sweets that I had no time left to write..

Then I wanted to experience decadence to get real, raging inspiration, like the stories in biographies of great writers. I wanted to wear Versace suits with tight pants, drink lots of wine, let the light shine in my eyes, fall in love with the prettiest woman and write. I designed and created a chocolate lifestyle. I dived into decadence, but most of the time I was drunk and did not write.

More than 10 years have passed since I started looking for inspiration for my writing. I have yet to write.

Recently I brought a special, feather pen and a thick leather notebook. Soon I will start writing my novel. I've been making chocolate for more than ten years. Almost without noticing it, I find myself telling a story. Maybe through telling the story of chocolate I can also tell something about myself, something about longing, romance and decadence.

I invite you to watch, smell, taste and feel my love story.'

- Max Brenner

if you want to die and go to heaven in one simple sip whenever you're in melbourne / gold coast / sydney hunt out the nearest max brenner's chocolate cafe, theres honestly something in those hot chocolates / coffees that really is a love story.

i wish there were more people in the world like that, honestly.