15 August 2025

Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory is looking for taste testers!

| By Jarryd Rowley
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The Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory is looking for 100 taste testers to try a year's worth of new products.

The Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory is looking for 100 taste testers to try a year’s worth of new products. Photo: Supplied.

One hundred lucky people will become taste testers – for a whole year – for the iconic Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory – and ultimately decide what goes onto supermarket shelves.

Salt and pepper chocolate or popping candy rocky road? That’s up to the successful entrants, who will get Junee chocolate delivered straight to their door for 12 months!

With applications open and available to the end of August, those looking to become the official taste testers will need to stand out, as last time the factory ran the search in 2023, 18,000 people entered in just 10 days!

Rhiannon Druce, whose family runs and operates the factory, said they were expecting even more people than in 2023 to take part, and those interested should jump on as soon as possible.

“We are trialling a lot of new products lately because we’ve got new machinery and we’ve upgraded our facilities. So we’re just wanting to do a reach out to just the broader community, rather than just the friends and family,” she said.

“We want to have a fun, playful way to get some more taste testers and more opinions on our products. Initially, we decided that we would have 50 people who would be selected for the role, but the interest in it this year is so great that we’ve actually raised it to 100 people.

“Ninety-eight per cent of the world craves chocolate, but it’s also just nice to hear that not only does everyone love chocolate, but they love our chocolate, and they love our products, and they want to come on the journey of seeing the product in its infancy and then seeing it on the shelf.”

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Rhiannon said one of the search’s main goals was to bring eyes to the Junee community, and by having more than 20,000 people apply, it was a great opportunity for people to see what the region had to offer.

“We’re trying to really showcase the region as much as we’re asking for taste testers,” she said.

“We want people to come into the region. We want them to see the canola fields in their bloom, but also visit other areas of the Riverina and understand that we are a region that has some beautiful things on offer.”

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Rhiannon gave a few hints as to what successful applicants could expect to taste.

“We have a fascination at the moment with Davidson plum,” she said.

“It’s a native product to the Byron Bay region, and it’s such an interesting product. It’s so powerfully sour that when you freeze-dry it down to a powder form, you can do so many fun things with it, especially with chocolate. So you’ve got this sourness, but then the sweetness of the chocolate that we think is really interesting.

“We are also trialling some things with Batlow apples. At the moment, we’re thinking like a caramel chocolate apple pie block.”

Applications for the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory tester roles close at 11:59 pm on 31 August. To apply, simply visit the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory website here and follow the prompts. The winners will be contacted on 1 September.

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