No golden ticket was necessary, but excitement levels were still at fever pitch for my tour of Kent’s newest chocolate factory.

Having outgrown its main base of operation at Bluewater, start-up chocolate maker Cocoba has opened a new production and distribution facility on the Kent Kraft Industrial Estate on the Swanscombe Peninsular.

It means its fine assortment of chocolate bars, buttons, truffles, fudge, nuts, coffee beans and signature hot chocolate are now being crafted on an even bigger scale.

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If such a line-up of delicacies has made your taste buds all aflutter, they should be. Although the same probably can’t be said for your wallet or waistline.

For Cocoba owner Darren Litton, fast becoming north Kent's own Willy Wonka, seeing his own chocolate brand expand is nothing short of a dream come true.

Growing up in his native Australia, he used to be left dazzled by his grandfather’s homemade hot chocolate, but when he came to the UK nine years ago he couldn’t find a chocolate drink to match it and so decided to create it for himself.

From there, Cocoba was born. Darren said: “We opened up our flagship store at Bluewater towards the end of 2013, so we’ve been there almost three years now.

“In-store we do tea, coffee, bake all our baguettes fresh every day, make all our paninis on-site, bake our pastries, make all our hot chocolate with real Belgian chocolate and have a selection of chocolate desserts made to order.

“It’s been phenomenal growth for us — most of our growth has come from our regular customers, as well as word of mouth, people tasting the product and loving it and recommending it to friends and family, so it’s been going really well for us.”

Considering all of Cocoba’s products had been made either in-store or in a 13 square feet production space above, it’s no surprise that a bigger facility was eventually needed.

The new space in Swanscombe is 1300 square feet and its coolest feature — in both the literal and figurative sense — is what can only be described as a walk-in fridge.

It’s where all the chocolate bars are stacked up on shelves to set, and must be a pretty great place to work during the hot summer months. Suffice to say, Darren was delighted to see it open alongside his family and trusted employees.

VIDEO: Cocoba opens chocolate factory

He said: “We were looking for an industrial unit to produce and pack all our chocolates — we have over 150 products and we hand make over 50 of them — and we wanted a unit to centralise operations and distribution and we wanted it to be within a 10 to 15 minute drive to Bluewater. Where we are is about an eight minute drive, so it’s an absolutely perfect location for us.

“Providing jobs in the area is also incredibly important, which is why when we were looking for an industrial unit we wanted it to be within the same area. We found Kent council, Dartford council, the Mayor, MP and Bluewater themselves to be incredibly supportive towards us, so with the growth of the store we’re obviously creating more jobs within the store, and with the industrial unit you have people in production, marketing and admin.”

It didn’t take me long to realise that I lacked the chocolate making finesse required to join the team myself. Having made a decent fist of pouring the liquid heaven into the mould, decorating it with an assortment of other treats proved messy.

As good as broken Oreo biscuits and Smarties taste when set within a bar of chocolate, their arrangement in my own creation was scattershot to say the least.

Not that Dartford MP Gareth Johnson’s looked much better — Haribo embedded in chocolate? Really? I’m not sure either of us are likely to create anything capable of knocking Cocoba’s salted toffee truffles from their calorie-laden perch.

Darren explained: “Our salted toffee truffle is our best-selling product and we give out a free salted toffee truffle with every drink in store, so people can try it, see how incredible it is, and purchase it.”

Also popular are the hot chocolate spoons, which are quite simply just a mass of chocolate at the end of a wooden spoon. You pop them into a cup of hot milk, stir to your heart’s content, and a glorious cup of hot chocolate is born.

Despite the success so far, Cocoba certainly isn’t resting on its laurels. New products are being concocted all the time and Darren’s two-year-old daughter Ella is the chief taster, so nothing makes its way into store unless it’s truly excellent.

Bluewater may soon not be the only place a Cocoba store calls home, either. Darren is keen to have a high street presence in Kent, ideally somewhere busy like Canterbury or Tunbridge Wells.

Unsurprisingly, the owners of the Kraft estate are delighted to have an ambitious start-up company on board.

Director Nick Dunigan said: “Cocoba is just the sort of business we like and is a fantastic addition to our tenant line-up.

“We have been on this estate since the 1970s and faced many obstacles in that time, including the three day week, fires, the channel tunnel rail link, plans for a relief road, but people forget just what a thriving local business hub this is, providing employment and support for large numbers of local people. We have supported a number of local start-ups and growing businesses over the years.”

Cocoba’s growing reputation could be bolstered further with success at this year’s Dartford and Gravesham Business Awards, which are held in November.

Until then, north Kent’s biggest chocolate machine needs to keep rolling — Christmas isn’t that far away...