Winners of the first ever Chocolate Awards announced.

LONDON: 2/11/05. The winners of the first-ever Chocolate Awards are announced today at 11.30am on the Chocolate Festival feature stand at the Spirit of Christmas Fair, Olympia.

The awards have been set-up and are run by the Academy of Chocolate that promotes greater awareness and understanding of fine chocolate and campaigns for improvements in the quality of chocolate offered to consumers.

The Academy has awarded Gold, Silver & Bronze accolades, based on a points system for appearance, aroma and taste. In some categories no Gold award was conferred.

Sara Jayne-Stanes chairman of the Academy of Chocolate says of the Awards
“We were overwhelmed with the number and quality of entries we’ve received for the awards, especially as it’s our first year. The outstanding quality of the medal winners gives us great confidence for the future. It is so rewarding to see a growing number of highly creative and perceptive chocolate makers stretching the boundaries of talent and taste and, at the same time, paying significant attention to the highest quality, character and provenance of the chocolate – in harmony with the Academy’s ethos to ‘look beyond the label’.

We hope that these annual Awards will begin to help consumers, retailers and restaurateurs to make enlightened choices about the chocolate they buy. However, we did feel that there is plenty of work to done on the milk chocolate categories. In 2006 we look forward to seeing some of those again who were not successful this year as well as many new entries”.

The judging panel included the UK’s foremost chocolate experts, Damian Allsop, pastry chef and chocolatier, Martin Christy of seventypercent.com, Chantal Coady of Rococo, Chloe Doutre-Roussel of Fortnum & Mason’s, Sarah Jane Evans, food writer & broadcaster, Sara Jayne-Stanes, author of Chocolate: A Definitive Guide (Chairman of AoC), and Kate Johns of nudge pr.

Best UK Chocolatier

L’Artisan du Chocolat

Best Dark Chocolate Bar – sponsored by Twining’s

Gold: Amedei Chuao
Silver: Amedei 9
Amedei Porcelana
Bronze: L’Artisan du Chocolat Madong

Best Milk Chocolate Bar
Bronze: Scharffen Berger

Best Filled Chocolate
Gold: William Curley, Chuao Chocolate
La Maison du Chocolat, Mint Ganache
Paul A Young, Sea-salted Caramel
Chococo, Gorgeous Ginger
Silver: L’Artisan du Chocolat, Salted Caramel
Chococo, Wild Thing (cherry truffle)
Paul A Young, Raspberry Ganache
William Curley, Mint truffle
William Curley, Earl Grey tea truffle
Bronze: Rococo, Chilli truffle
Chococo, Chilli
Summerdown, Peppermint Cream

Best Dark Truffle
Gold: William Curley Dark truffle
Silver: Paul A Young
L’Artisan du Chocolat
Bronze: La Maison du Chocolat
Rococo

Best Milk Truffle
Silver: L’Artisan du Chocolat


Best Organic Dark Chocolate Bar

Silver: Valrhona CAO

Bronze: Green & Black’s 70%
Rococo Organic

Best Organic Milk Chocolate Bar
No awards

Best Bean to Bar Chocolate Makers Bar - a discretionary award made by the judges:

Gold: Amedei Chuao
Amedei Porcelana

Silver: Valrhona Palmira 2005

Bronze: Grenada Chocolate (71% Organic Dark)
Pralus Java (70%)
Amedei 9 (75%)
Valrhona Jivara (Milk)