Academy Awards
Each year entries are judged after the year end in January.
The Academy of Chocolate was set up in 2005 by five of Britain’s leading chocolate professionals, united in the belief that eating fine chocolate is one of life’s great pleasures. They wanted to campaign for better chocolate and promote a greater awareness of the difference between fine chocolate and the mass-produced chocolate confectionery which most of us eat.Its aims are to:
- Encourage chocolate lovers to ‘look beyond the label’ to differentiate between chocolate confectionary and ‘real’ chocolate;
- Improve the standard and knowledge of chocolate in the UK by promoting an understanding of the ingredients of chocolate, through the chain, from bean to bar;
- Encourage the transparent sourcing of cocoa beans from the plantations, and their production in socially fair and environmentally undamaging conditions.Fine chocolate is defined as containing at least 60% cocoa solids for dark chocolate and 30% for milk, containing no vegetable fat other than cocoa butter, containing no artificial additives or flavourings (including 'vanillin') and where the quality, provenance and treatment of the cocoa beans have been considered.
- Filled chocolates or products using other ingredients should follow the spirit of the definition of fine chocolate above.
- Members of the Academy of Chocolate are committed to ethically sourced chocolate.
The Academy was delighted to receive over 300 entries for the 2008 Awards and even more entries for 2009. The judging in January of this year took over 3 days with 30 judges including some of the countries leading food journalists and Michelin starred chefs tasting and scoring the entries. Chocolatiers also join the judging panel but are not permitted to judge any of the categories that they enter.
The 14 categories in the Academy of Chocolate Awards include ‘best chocolate makers bar’, ‘best ganache filled chocolate’, ‘best flavoured bar’ categories, ‘best truflle’, ‘best organic’ categories and ‘best drinking chocolate’. We are delighted that the best ‘chocolatier’ will, this year, be supported by Quinta do Noval Port. In keeping with the aims of the Academy, criteria for the awards are that products contain natural ingredients with no artificial flavourings and colourings. For the first time this year the Academy have also introduced a best packaging award.
Judging for the Awards takes place in January and the winners are announced in February. If you’re interested in receiving more information or entering the awards please contact kate@nudgepr.co.uk