It has been a big weekend in the chocolate world. Last week was Chocolate Week in London which culminated with The Chocolate Show, where the winners of the World Final of the International Chocolate Awards were announced.
The Best in Competition Overall Winners were Bonnat Chocolatier (France) for their dark Selva Maya bar, and Fruition Chocolate (US) for their Maranon Milk bar. We’ve only been lucky enough to try a milk chocolate from Bonnat before, but it was so creamy and smooth that it was unlike any other bar we’ve tried.
The competition also awards Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards to chocolates in various categories, including plain/origin bars, micro-batch bars, high percentage dark bars, rough ground bars, bars with alternative sugars, bars with infusions/flavours, bars with inclusions/pieces, bars with fillings and many categories of truffles, ganache and praline. In each category, dark, milk and white chocolates are judged separately. There are too many winners to list them all here (you can see the full list here), but we are super proud to say that we stock the World Final Bronze Award winner Dick Taylor 72% Belize bar, and the Colombia Huila bar from The Chocolate Tree, who won a World Final Bronze Award for their 85% Venezuela Porcelana. We are also super excited that we we’ve already been in contact and awaiting delivery from a number of other award winning chocolate producers. So keep an eye out over the next few months for some of the world’s best chocolates in your Bean Bar You subscription boxes!
The International Chocolate Awards started in 2012 as an independent international fine chocolate competition. Each year there are regional competitions in countries and regions around the world, with the regional winners then judged together at the World Final. The competitions are judged by a wide range of experts, including tasters, pastry chefs, food journalists, bloggers, sommeliers, chefs and the International Chocolate Awards Grand Jury (wouldn’t that be a dream job?!). By identifying the best chocolate made with the best cacao, the International Chocolate Awards aim to support small companies and artisans working with fine chocolate, and support cacao farmers.
We’ve been lucky enough to try a fair few of the award winning chocolates, but there are also many on our list… And don’t forget – everyone has their own preferences when it comes to taste, and chocolate is no different. These awards are a great place to start looking for amazing craft chocolate, but everyone will have their own gold bars!