Last week, Simon and I were lucky enough to be invited to The Academy of Chocolate awards in London. The event took place in London’s swanky Arts Club, and was a rather quirky affair – half informal champagne party, half awards ceremony. It was a hot evening, so the champagne went down well, but some of the chocolates on offer did suffer slightly in the heat!
But what I found most interesting about the event was the mix of people present.
Showing their wares (and offering endless free samples) at the event were Hotel Chocolat, Paul A Young, William Curley and Rococo and I have to say they did a fantastic job in conditions where the people were melting as well as the chocolate!
What impressed me was that just about everyone (with the possible exception of a certain Mr Harcourt Cooze) who was anyone in the UK – and international – chocolate industry turned out for what was really not much more than an informal gathering. The list of attendees included Angus Thirlwell (from Hotel Chocolat), Paul A Young, William Curley, Chantal Coady (Rococo), Art Pollard (Amano), Mott Green (Greneda Chocolat Company), Keith Hurdman (Thorntons) and Craig Sams & Josephine Fairley (founders of Green & Black’s).
There were also many other chocolatiers and people involved in other aspects of the industry – many of whom I may have forgotten due to a slight overdose of champagne!
But despite the room being full of competitors – and people from very different backgrounds – everyone seemed to get on well and the evening turned out to be a great success. And I have to admit the goody bag we all got at the end was rather nice too.
You can find out more about The Academy of Chocolate on their web site, but I also wanted to publish the full list of winners here. Any of these chocolates is well worth picking up if you get the chance.
The Golden Bean – Best bean to bar dark
- THE GOLDEN BEAN: Amedei – No 9
- Gold: Amedei – Porcelana
- Gold: Amano – Madagascar
- Gold: Amedei – Toscano Black 70%
- Gold: Valrhona – Manjari
- Silver: Domori – Il Blend
- Silver: Domori – Teyuna
- Silver: Amano – Montanya
- Silver: Amedei – Toscano Black 63%
- Silver: Amano – Ocumare
- Bronze: Domori – Puertomar
- Bronze: Domori – Puertofino
- Bronze: Valrhona – Caraïbe
- Bronze: Amano – Jembrana
- Bronze: Amedei – Toscano Black 66%
Best House Dark Chocolate Bar
- Gold: William Curley – House Blend 70%
- Bronze: Hotel Chocolat – Blend 2
- Bronze: Hotel Chocolat – Blend 3
- Bronze: Auberge du Chocolat Auberge bar
Best Flavoured Dark Chocolate Bar
- Gold: Valrhona – Manjari orange
- Gold: Paul A Young Fine Chocolates – Black Cardamom and stem ginger
- Silver: Beschle – Grand Cru Trinitario au Fleur de Sel et Pistaches
- Silver: Oberweis – Cumin & Pistachio
- Bronze: Valrhona – Guanaja grue
- Bronze: Thorntons – Macadamia
- Bronze: Amedei – Extra dark chocolate bar with avola almonds
- Bronze: Co Couture – Rum & raisin blend II
Best Milk Chocolate Bar
- Silver: Theo – Jane Goodall 45%
- Silver: Michel Cluizel – Grand Lait 45%
- Bronze: Michel Cluizel – Mangaro Lait
- Bronze: Amedei – For You ‘Gocce Cioccolato Al Latte’
- Bronze: Thorntons – Venezuelan 38%
- Bronze: Amano – Ocumare Milk Chocolate
Best Flavoured Milk Chocolate Bar
- Gold: Amedei – Milk chocolate with hazelnuts
- Gold: Co Couture – Honeycomb, blend IV
- Gold: Sir Hans Sloane – Mandarin cranberry
- Silver: Thorntons – Tonka Bean
- Bronze: Domori – Latte sal
- Bronze: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – stem ginger with fennel seed
- Bronze: Kaoka – 32% Milk with caramelised almond pieces
Best Ganache filled chocolate – flavoured or plain
- Gold: William Curley – Amedei Chuao
- Gold: William Curley – Toasted sesame
- Gold: William Curley – Japanese black vinegar
- Gold: Chococo – Gorgeous ginger
- Gold: William Curley – Rosemary & olive oil
- Gold: Paul Wayne Gregory – Coconut bonbon
- Gold: Rococo – Passion fruit & mango
- Gold: Rococo – Rose & Lychee
- Silver: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – 10yr Glenmorangie
- Silver: Paul Wayne Gregory – Salted caramel bonbon
- Silver: Melt Chocolates – Peanut butter and raspberry
- Silver: Auberge du Chocolat – Spices
- Silver: Hotel Chocolat – Caribbean rum ganache
- Silver: Rózsavölgyi Csokoládé – Ancho chilli and lemon oil
- Silver: Hotel Chocolat – Caribbean fruit ganache
- Silver: Paul Wayne Gregory – A hint of liquorice bonbon
- Silver: Melt Chocolates – Olive oil caramel
- Silver: William Curley – Framboise
- Silver: Jean-Paul Hevin – 1502
- Silver: Cocomaya – Pomegranate
- Bronze: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – Sichuan pepper & mango
- Bronze: Paul De Bondt – Lemon
- Bronze: Prestat – Strawberry
- Bronze: Theo – Rum raisin
- Bronze: Melt Chocolates – Banana, coconut & passion fruit
- Bronze: Cocomaya – Assam chai
- Bronze: Rozsavologyi csokolade – Raspberry & cherry palinka
Best Filled Praline or Bonbon
- Gold: Pralus – Barre Infernale Lait
- Silver: Sir Hans Sloane – Coffee
- Silver: Sir Hans Sloane – Roasted almond
- Silver: William Curley – Sea salt caramel
- Silver: William Curley Piemont hazelnut
- Silver: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – sea salted almond rocher
- Bronze: De Bondt Paul – Hazelnut praline
- Bronze: Booja Booja – Hazelnut crunch truffle
- Bronze: Sir Hans Sloane – Almond
Best Dark Truffle (unflavoured)
- Gold: William Curley – House dark
- Silver: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – 70%Chuao
- Bronze: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – Los Ancones truffle 67%
- Bronze: Lauden – House dark truffle
- Bronze: Sir Hans Sloane – Dark truffle
- Bronze: Rococo – House truffle
Best Milk Truffle (unflavoured)
- Silver: Sir Hans Sloane – Milk truffle
- Silver: William Curley – House milk
Best Dark Organic Chocolate Bar
- Silver: Pralus – Le 100%
- Bronze: Valrhona – Cao Grande Dark
Best Milk Organic Chocolate Bar
Best Drinking Chocolate (unflavoured)
- Gold: Paul a Young Fine Chocolates – Aztec drinking chocolate
- Gold: Pralus – Cacao show drinking chocolate
- Silver: Bonnat – Copeaux 100%
- Silver: William Curley – house blend
- Silver: Bonnat – Tablette à Cuire
- Bronze: Rococo – house blend
- Bronze: Sir Hans Sloane – Dark drinking chocolate
- Bronze: Bonnat – Copeaux 80%
- Best Drinking Chocolate (flavoured)
- Bronze: Amedei – Chocolate in tazza
Best Packaging
- Gold: Tcho – 6 bar gift box
- Silver: Rococo – Round box
- Bronze: La Molina – The cretti book
Rausch (www.rausch-schokolade.com) is a German chocolatier that Rainer and Oliver from Premier Food and Beverages are bringing out to Australia. Rausch is a family-owned, third-generation company that has been making chocolate since 1918. In more recent years they’ve established their very own SchokoLand too, where lucky visitors can visit the museum, try delicacies at the café and see their chocolate being made.
Rausch’s Plantagen (plantation) range was developed in 2000 to highlight eight different but key cocoa producing regions, producing blocks of single-origin chocolate with varying cocoa contents for keen chocaholics to try. The cocoa contents range from 35% to 80%, but I’m trying the first four in the range today:
The first thing that struck me was how beautifully packaged they are, in colour graduations to indicate the increase in cocoa content from the mild 35% to 47%. Their envelope, front-opening also reminds me of the winning Wonka bars from the original 1971 movie – very enticing indeed and hinting at the richness hiding within.
Undressed, the chocolates still look gorgeous, with a distinct change in colour the higher up the cocoa scale. Starting from lightest to darkest, we have
- Noumea 35% from Papua New Guinea
- Madanga 39% from Madagascar
- Puerto Caballo 43% from Venezuela
- Guacimo 47% from Costa Rica
But how do they taste?
Noumea 35%
This has a waxy texture that wasn’t as quick to melt as you’d normally expect with a milder, creamier chocolate. It is also not overly sweet, which is a pleasant change and allows you to fully appreciate the clean milk flavour. It doesn’t sound quite right, but I’d honestly describe this block as sort of cool and refreshing.
Madanga 39%
More buttery flavours begin to emerge in this little beauty, with the underlying cocoa also making its presence felt. Again this is not sickly sweet, but a bit softer and meltier, allowing the cream to shine as the top note before the cocoa emerges. Better than Cadbury Dairy Milk, that’s for sure.
Puerto Cabello 43%
This is the favourite stolen-sample from the staff kitchen at Premier Food and Beverages and they clearly have good taste. This is even quicker to melt on the tongue yet has a much stronger cocoa flavour with a nicely nutty aftertaste that makes it much different to its partner plantations.
Guacimo 47%
A stand-out. Whilst being very similar in taste to Haigh’s milk chocolate, it has a stronger secondary note of coffee or burnt wood. Despite that description giving the ponce-sounding factor more than a bit of a nudge, the darker hue really is noticeable on the palate and has made me realise that single origin chocolate is definitely worth investigating for their markedly different flavour notes and textures.
These are all uniquely delicious together or separately. I’m really looking forward to trying the next four in their range. I love this job.
Chocablog readers in the UK will probably be aware that last night was the final of The Apprentice on BBC1. The two finalists were challenged to create and launch a box of chocolates, and friend our old friend Paul A. Young was drafted in to advise Kate’s team.
The consensus was that Yasmina’s winning “Cocoa Electric” chocolates weren’t actually that great, but we’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on some of Kate’s “Choc D’Amour” chocolates, so we thought it would be fun to give you our own impressions of what her team came up with.
The first thing I should say is that this product obviously isn’t actually available, so we don’t have “real” packaging. Instead I’ve had to resort to using a screen grab from the TV to show the packaging design.
To be frank, I didn’t think much of the brand they came up with. It’s quite bland and has been done many times before – and much better. I much preferred Yasmina’s Cocoa Electric both in terms of the packaging design and how they’d positioned the product.
But of course what’s really important is how good the chocolates are, so let’s take a look…
Strawberry & Champagne
A milk chocolate heart with a soft, subtle centre. This one has very delicate flavours – I might not have picked out the strawberry had I not known it was in there. The champagne flavour is also quite subtle and doesn’t detract from the rather delicious, creamy milk chocolate.
Sea Salted Caramel
This dark chocolate sphere is exactly like Paul’s own salted caramels, except a little smaller and with a less glossy finish. Suffice to say the salt works perfectly with the rich caramel and makes this one of my favourite chocolates of all time. It’s divine.
Lemongrass & Honey
Some interesting, fruity flavours going on here. I’m not a huge fan of honey, but I do like lemongrass and the combination works well, although this particular flavour combination did bring to mind a certain brand of honey and lemon cough sweets, I still really liked it.
Passion Fruit
A milk chocolate oval with another deliciously soft, fruity centre. Like the other chocolates, the flavours are delicate and subtle. I think this may be the first time I’ve had passion fruit chocolates, but I’d certainly like to try them again.
Chilli
A dark chocolate oval with a soft centre. This one surprised me as it was so fruity, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the flavours were. The actual chilli is very subtle and simply enhances the other flavours. The only hint of heat comes about 30 seconds after you’ve finished the chocolate and is more of a reminder that it’s time to have another than a ‘chilli hit’. I think this may be my new second favourite chocolate of all time (after the salted caramel).
So all in all, we have five fantastic chocolates – as good as you would find anywhere – and probably better than you would ever find on any supermarket shelf. The team came up with a great balance of flavours and used some quality ingredients.
Had these been real, the problem would have been the price. At £13 a box, it’s unlikely they would have been able to get into the supermarkets in the first place. But any cheaper and they would have had to compromise on ingredients and the result just wouldn’t have been the same.
As to whether Kate should have won with these chocolates, well that’s a tough call. Yasmina had a more interesting brand, but used cheap ingredients to keep the price down. It’s debatable whether anyone would have bought the chocolates more than once.
I wasn’t overly keen on the brand Kate created. For something aimed at both men and women, it was overly “girly”. And the “For him, For Her, To Share” strapline she came up with for Choc D’Amour is just plain wrong. Nobody would want to share these. With anyone.
If you’re in the UK, you can watch the whole of last night’s final now over on iPlayer.
Recently, I’ve become a bit of a fan of a good quality Turkish Delight chocolate, so I thought I’d give this Tesco own-brand version a go. Obviously I wasn’t expecting a lot, but at just 67p for this sizable 150g bar, I thought I’d risk my hard-earned cash on some.
First impressions aren’t bad. An interesting looking bar of milk chocolate with a nice shine and an unusual ripple pattern to it.
But when you bite into one of those chunks, you realise that there isn’t much in the way of Turkish Delight filling here. It’s certainly no Fry’s Turkish Delight in that respect.
But as it turns out, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Because the “Turkish Delight” in this bar is quite awful. It’s nothing more than glucose syrup and some pectin with some artificial flavouring and beetroot for colour. It’s horribly sweet and more liquid than solid, so it just ends up coating the insides of your mouth with its nastiness. I found I had to have a glass of water after each chunk just to be able to taste anything else again.
Even then, it’s not really possible to get any handle on the quality of the milk chocolate here. At 25% cocoa solids, it’s better than some I could mention, but the sweet, gloopy syrup inside obliterates any flavours that may be present.
This one is best avoided. If you’re urging for a Turkish Delight fix, I recommend seeking out Thorntons offering over this any day.
