The Archive
A record of the work — the events, releases, and collaborations that shaped BASIK Chocolates along the way.
“When I Finally Fly Over to Japan” - Starting with the June Mystery Box, a limited seasonal release built around six courses, one tree of Japanese persimmons, and an imaginary flight ticket to Japan.
Where it begins
Before the chocolate, comes the ritual. A custom envelope holds the menu papers and a BASIK-SEKI guide; underneath, a stack of unmarked tins waits to be told apart. Look closer and a question mark appears embossed first, then lit up in holographic blue. The "boarding pass" inside lays it out plainly: Brisbane to Tokyo, six courses, three core and three snack, 2190 hours of ideation.
A limited seasonal release, June 2026 edition.
Every piece of it — the holographic question mark stickers, made by hand, the menu and BASIK-SEKI paper designs, the themed envelope itself — proudly created by our designer, Zac Ferris of TeamDynasty.
Core Course
Three core pieces this season: a nine-piece bonbon collection, the Hoshigaki Tablet Bar, and a duet of Pâte de Fruits as Palate cleansers.
Bonbons
Soy Sauce & Vanilla Bean
This is the one that opens the collection — sweet, savoury, somewhere between confectionery ice cream and a bold drizzle of ponzu. The Queensland-grown vanilla beans get toasted over an open flame to coax out a malt-like note, and the soy sauce reduction is an adaptation of a technique shared by Master Chocolatier Chef Keith Hurdman — originally built for a coffee reduction, reworked here into a gel-like base of soy sauce, paper-thin slices of marbled kombu, and the smallest touch of pure yuzu juice from Ito Farms in Japan.
White base, etched antique gold lines Each one hand-etched, line by line, so no two come out quite the same — gold drawn on like Kintsugi, the art of tracing a seam rather than hiding it. It felt right for this pairing.
Soy sauce and vanilla ice cream isn't an obvious match on paper, but put together, the umami and the sweetness hold each other up — the seam is the point.
Layered Sesame Duja
This one had been on the list for a while, ever since we first worked with Yamada Seiyu's white sesame paste, via TheGoodGrubHub, in an earlier release. Roasted white and black sesame paste fold together into a duja that flutters between peanut butter and a rich, earthy nuttiness — built layer by layer, each one hand-tempered over a marble slab to keep the consistency even, around 4.5 hours of work for this flavour.
Pale to deep blue, gold dots Built around Hokusai's The Great Wave, painted by hand across three bonbons, each one telling a different beat of the same moment.
The first is quiet — a soft double brushstroke in pale, washed-out blue, before anything happens. The second holds its breath — three gold dots gathered close beside the wave, the boats sitting beneath it, still waiting. The third lets it break — the dots scattered wider around a fuller stroke, the wave finally at its peak. Three bonbons, one painting, told in sequence.
Peanut Butter, Togarashi & Rice Crispy Praline
Built to close the collection on texture and a kick. Kingaroy peanuts, carefully roasted and turned into a smooth butter, folded through caramelised white chocolate couverture with a crispy puffed white rice praline, finished with a dash of togarashi shichimi — Japan's seven-flavour chilli pepper.
White base, red dome, black brushstroke One brushstroke, deliberate and unrepeated — a small tribute to Miyamoto Musashi, the swordsman who built a legend on focus alone. One brushstroke to finish.
Hoshigaki Tablet Bar
The Hoshigaki Tablet Bar is a solid 36% white chocolate couverture bar, Queensland-grown vanilla beans folded straight through it. The Ume Nougatine is made the traditional French way but built around ume sesame, rolled out by hand on marble and cut into rounds — the offcut shards scattered around the bar itself. Slivers of hoshigaki are set in between as it all comes together, finished with a sprinkle of Awayuki Shio snow salt flakes.
The hoshigaki itself is Kasz Chester's work, of JustKasz — her 2025 vintage, a single flush of 123 hoshigaki, each one individually numbered out of 123, harvested from one Japanese-varietal persimmon tree grown in Victoria, Australia. Fruits no. 19, 33, 57, 88 were carefully sliced and featured on the bars.
The fruit is hand-strung and air-dried over winter, then aged a further 55 days to develop its signature sugar bloom. Kasz also connected us with Phil Doyle for the Queensland-grown vanilla folded through the bar. The ume sesame seeds come by way of TheGoodGrubHub.
Pâte de Fruits - Palate Cleansers
Pâte de Fruits as palate cleansers — Lemonade & Young Ginger, its sugar coating lifted with a pinch of yuzu powder and seaweed salt, alongside Guava & Hon Mirin, its coating finished with seaweed salt alone.
The Hon Mirin Mikawa is sourced through TheGoodGrubHub by Minako and her team — made in the Mikawa region using a technique passed down for over 200 years. Both pâte de fruits use their Yagatame Moshio seaweed salt in the coating.
Snacks Course
Three small pieces, three small stories.
The Smoked Soy Sauce Kohakotou started as a suggestion from Kasz Chester — once she heard the menu's structure, and that it would include a duet of Japanese-themed palate cleansers, she gave us a base recipe to experiment with. What came out the other end was ours: built around a Kyoto smoked soy from TheGoodGrubHub.
Titled "Duet of Clouds" on the printed menu: a heavily reduced Guinness with the smallest dash of vanilla bean, folded into an eggless marshmallow and hand-cut into semi-circles, set against a Sakura (cherry blossom) marshmallow as its contrast. The sakura purée comes from TheGoodGrubHub. We'd featured the sakura marshmallow once before, in an Easter showpiece, and hadn't brought it back until now — light acidity, a hint of floral, that confectionary cherry fairy-floss note.
The Guinness side is more personal. Years ago, a manager stayed back with me to finish some overtime work, calling people overseas across timezones. Once we were done, we ended up at Bird's Nest Yakitori, back when it was still on Browning St in West End. He ordered us an Asahi Black — direct import, the waitress made a point of telling us — and the taste of it has stayed with me since. Looking back now, I know it was a lager and not a stout, and I know I'd never get my hands on that exact beer again. But it kept circling back to a childhood memory — the way you'd eat the white and pink marshmallows together from a bag of Pascall's. That pull toward something deeper and more nuanced is what led to Guinness Stout as the pairing for the sakura.
The petit-fours are Mama Carries — my mum's recipe, the one she made for us as kids, every Deepavali (Diwali) and Christmas. We gave it a BASIK twist: milk chocolate couverture, and two flavours to keep with the season's theme — Hojicha Butter Caramel, finished with a light sprinkle of fleur de sel, and Matcha Butter Caramel, finished with freeze-dried strawberry. Both the matcha and hojicha are sourced from The Steepery Tea Co. — an all-time favourite supplier who's backed BASIK since the early days. The matcha is their Seimei, grown in Chiran, Kagoshima; the hojicha is grown and produced by the Watanabe family on Yakushima Island, also in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Photography by Anthony Hart, Anthony Hart Photography.
Design by Zac Ferris, Team Dynasty.