For local markets in the past, the selling point of the dark and bittersweet substance carob had been as an alternative chocolate - a second resort for those poor souls allergic to the confectionary.
However, there's many more benefits to picking this substance over chocolate for both chocolate lovers and avoiders.
Other cultures have known this for centuries. In ancient Egypt, it was used as a natural sweetener and was even the represented icon for the hieroglyph meaning 'sweet'.
Carob juice drinks are also traditionally drunk during the Islamic month of Ramadan, and the plain dried fruit - cultivated from a flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family - is also eaten on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat.
Today, the plant can be used as much more than a sweetener or dried fruit, says Michael Jolley, the founder of a local SA based carob company called The Australian Carob Co.
He suggests that, outside of being a replacement for chocolate, it can be used as a savoury flavour for crusts on meats as well as a seasoning for soups.
Jolley - whose family owned company is the largest producer in Australia of carob products such as kibble, powder, and desert syrup - says the foodstuff has many benefits above chocolate.
Carob is free of the chemicals found naturally in chocolate - caffeine and other xanthine derivatives, oxalic acid, theobromine, phenylthylamine and tyramine - and also contains less fat and more sugars.
This results in it being more naturally sweet than its rival, meaning it ends up in your mouth with less refinement.
"It is an organic process due to the fact that the only process used to produce the carob powder is roasting the carob kibble and milling it to a finer form," says Michael.
"With our carob syrup, the process is simply to add some water for the carob to soak up and then press it and filter and the product left is carob syrup."
But what about cooking with carob? The Jolley's produce uses a particular fraction of palm kernel oil which behaves in a similar manner to cocoa butter, giving it a familiar melting temperature and profile.
"This means the carob will melt and behave very similar to chocolate, however it does not need tempering as chocolate does," says Michael.
The carob can be melted and set as many times as required without the need for tempering, with a softening point in the mid 30 celsius and a melting point of 38 to 42 celsius.
Michael suggests that, if you want to reset carob in to shapes, then it shouldn’t be heated above 42 celsius.
Outside of tasting far better than its reputation, carob also has a host of claim health benefits. It is said to improve digestion, lower cholesterol, act as an antioxidant and even be a treatment for diarrhoea.
It's also used as an effective against asthma, is a good expectorant, and is known for its treatment of polio in children due to the levels of gallic acid in carob tannins.