Last week I had the honour of being co-head judge at the inaugural NZ Chocolate Awards. It was a fantastic day and a great opportunity to taste a huge range of the finest chocolate available in New Zealand. There is a lot of talent in this country and the growing numbers of boutique artisan producers is very exciting. I look forward to seeing these awards develop over the coming years and hope that they can help to build a strong community spirit in the NZ chocolate industry whilst simultaneously introducing a healthy and friendly dose of competitive spirit.
Today the results from the awards were announced and I'm very pleased to see that many of the products we stock picked up medals, both in the bean-to-bar categories and the international category. To celebrate this, we've put together a special bundle of chocolate bars - all gold award winners - for your enjoyment.
Here's the full list of winners from our range...
Hogarth Craft Chocolate - Gianduia - gold medal plus NZ Life & Leisure Best Bean-To-Bar Award
Hogarth Craft Chocolate - Gran Blanco - gold medal
Hogarth Craft Chocolate - Roase & Vanilla Tea - gold medal
OCHO - Salted Caramel - gold medal
OCHO - Beekeeper - silver medal
OCHO - Solmons 70% - bronze medal
Dick Taylor - Black Fig - gold medal
Dick Taylor - Brown Butter, Nibs & Sea Salt - silver medal
Marou - Arabica Coffee - gold medal
Marou - Ben Tre Coconut Milk - silver
Original Beans - Beni Wild Harvest - gold medal
OCHO range - Label & Litho Best Packaging Award