At his family’s plantation in Madagascar, Bertil Åkesson of Åkesson’s chocolate grows cacao and pepper and turns them both into delightful chocolate. Three of his bars recently won awards at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in London. He faced some of the world’s greatest chocolatiers and came away with a hat trick. Congratulations to Bertil! Here are the descriptions for his winning bars.

Brazil 75%

Our Brazil 75% bar  is made with an astonishing forastero variety of cocoa called “parasinho” that grows in Brazil’s Mata Atlântica – the wild forest with the highest biodiversity on earth – where we purchased a 120-hectare plantation. This chocolate is very smooth and has very expressive notes that evoke wood, autumn scents, and the local pitanga fruit.

Bali 45% milk chocolate & fleur de sel

Our 45% milk chocolate bar is the first Balinese single-origin bar ever made in Europe. This chocolate holds a caramelized flavor resulting from the use of natural sugar produced from the juice of coconut blossoms, harvested by gently slicing the flower. Once collected, the nectar is kettle-boiled into a thick caramel and ground to a fine crystal. With a very low glycemic index, this sugar is a great and healthy match for our Balinese fleur de sel. The cocoa is produced by the Sukrama family on seven hectares in the Melaya area in the western part of the island.

Madagascar 75% Criollo cocoa

Our Madagascar 75% bar has a very expressive cocoa aroma with subtle fruity-sweet tartness and pleasant flavor notes that evoke citrus and red berries, the true taste of the very best cocoa beans from Madagascar. Our 2,300-hectare family estate in the Sambirano Valley in northwestern Madagascar has produced world-famous aromatic cocoa since 1920. Besides 300 tons per year of trinitario cocoa, a very limited production of criollo cocoa – two tons per year -is harvested separately

Åkesson’s produces several other bars, including one with voatsiperifery pepper, a wild pepper that grows on creeping vines up to 20 meters (that’s 65 feet!) up in the tree canopy. All of Åkesson’s chocolates are available online from the Meadow and in both of our shops.

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This is my first experience with the bar that really caught my eye.

Only the last lingering traces of flavor remain now, a burnt caramel with a touch of spicy ginger.  That was preceded by raisins and treacle, and indeed, as the maker, Gerard, suggested, perhaps a touch of “biscuit.” The first flavors that greeted me upon opening, regarding, snapping, sniffing, and sucking the chocolate bar were something: what, maybe cardamom and/or turmeric with a bit of allspice.  It is remarkably sweet.  The bar is imperfectly crafted, with a mouthfeel that is not entirely decisive, embracing neither the contemporary daring lightness or the old world brooding silkiness.   But I have not tasted Vietnamese chocolate before, and I’m dang happy to have experienced this new creation.  Artisan du Chocolat’s Vietnamese, 72% dark limited edition chocolate bar is made with Trinitario seedlings from neighboring Malaysia and grown in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province, East of the Mekong Delta.  Complex and distinctive, I couldn’t ask for more, sitting here in the sun, still puffing and warm from shoveling snow off the sidewalk of the Hudson street shop on a Thursday morning.

If you live in the Boston area, you saw how much water dropped suddenly from the sky last Saturday afternoon. Traffic ground to a halt as streets flooded out just minutes after the rain began.

Windsor Street River

Around 3pm, Taza’s Director of Manufacturing (i.e. Head Chocolate Making Guy), Mike Schechter, thought maybe he’d pop by our newly renovated, first floor chocolate factory for a quick look, just to be safe. He arrived to find Windsor St. more river than roadway. And once inside, he found water pouring unchecked into the factory via a breach in our building’s front exterior wall, and bubbling up from the drains in the floor. The new chocolate production facility, where we’d turned out our first batch of Mexicanos just last week, was already sitting in an unwelcome lake several inches deep, and the water was still coming. He grabbed his phone and started dialing, letting any Taza employee he could reach know that it might be a good idea for them to come by the factory, pronto.

Now, 72 hours later, we’re taking stock. A dedicated, non-stop weekend bail-out, mop-up, and salvage effort by many of our amazing Taza staffers, on their own time, has cleared the way for recovery and rebuilding to start. We’ve hacked out the bottom 16 inches of drywall on every wall in our entire facility, carted ruined office cubicles to the dumpsters, and relocated our laptops to apartments and cafes until we have a functional workspace. Our chocolate production capacity will be shut down for at least a week, and cash flow will be a big challenge as we find a way to finance the repair of the facility we just made a major investment in upgrading. The silver lining? Our stockpile of bars, Mexicanos, and other Taza goodies is still stored on the second floor of our building, and remains safe, dry, and delicious.

Retail Store

Taza has always been a scrappy crew of chocolate fanatics, and we’re determined to get back to the important business of making excellent chocolate as soon as possible. You have all shown us terrific support and love over our first 3 ½ years in business, and we ask for your support now – if you can, buy some Taza Chocolate (we also think you’d look great in a Taza t-shirt). Shop our online store, come out and see us at the farmers’ markets, or find us at your local retailer. With great customers like you, we’re going to keep on making the Taza Chocolate you love, come hell or high water.

Watch video from Channel 5 about Taza and the Somerville flash floods here>>

Buy their chocolate from The Meadow here>>

Press release: Following their recent entry into administration, certain assets and intellectual property of Kshocolât Ltd and Brand 1602 Chocolate Ltd have now been acquired by Bon Bon Buddies Ltd, Europe’s leading character licensed novelty confectionery and biscuit company.

The Kshocolât and Hot Choc brands encompass a range of premium boxed chocolates and confectionery, chocolate bars and drinking chocolate, with award-winning contemporary designs. These luxury products sell in a variety of UK premium retailers and enjoy a strong international presence in over 20 export markets.

Bon Bon Buddies will now invest in the brands to further develop the existing product range, build the brand profile and increase distribution. By maximising the marketing and market opportunities for Kshocolât and Hot Choc, Bon Bon Buddies plans to further enhance and complement its successful confectionery portfolio.

Chris Howarth, Managing Director of Bon Bon Buddies, said: “We are delighted to have completed this excellent acquisition against strong competition. The Kshocolât and Hot Choc brands will allow us to extend our market presence into the premium chocolate market in the UK and Europe with this exciting premium confectionery range”.

Bon Bon Buddies are currently holding in-depth discussions with Kshocolât’s existing supplier base and hope to re-launch the range at the earliest opportunity. However all future orders will only be made to customers within the Retail trade. For further information please view our Terms & Conditions

In readiness for the re-launch of the Kshocolât range, we are strongly encouraging existing Trade/Retail customers to contact Paul Stanton at Bon Bon Buddies, in order to obtain both the Account Application Form and Terms & Conditions.

Once these forms are returned to us, our Finance Department will then take up all relevant credit applications and references and process the applications accordingly. Once established, notifications will be sent indicating your Account Information and, if applicable, credit limit.

Bon Bon Buddies are enthusiastic to grow both the Kshocolât and Hot Choc brands within all markets and are excited to expand its already successful client base with Kshocolât’s previous customers.

In the first instance of for further information please contact Paul Stanton at paul.stanton@bonbonbuddies.com

We look forward to receiving your applications in the very near future and establishing successful trading relationships with you.

About Bon Bon Buddies

Bon Bon Buddies is a privately owned market leading business specializing in design, sourcing, manufacturing and marketing character and branded confectionery and biscuits.  Bon Bon Buddies head office is in South Wales, UK with additional sales, marketing and logistics offices in France, Benelux, Denmark and Poland.

Bon Bon Buddies license the intellectual rights for kids entertainment properties from the major global brand owners, working with their most popular character properties, including: Disney – Princess, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Cars and Toy Story; Nickelodeon – Spongebob; Marvel – Spiderman and Ironman; Sanrio – Hello Kitty; Lucas Film – Star Wars; and, BBC – In the Night Garden and Dr Who.

Bon Bon Buddies were winners of the Licensing Industry Awards for ‘The best food or drink range’ in both 2008 and 2009.

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For the last month or so we have offered a class on the making of salted caramels at The Meadow.  Our friend and master confectioner David Briggs of at Xocolatl de David led us through the various stages of caramelization and saltiness.

Below is the Ultimate Salted Caramel Recipe as perfected by David Briggs of Xocolatl de David.

The format of the salted caramel class was the usual: Attendees (we had over 32 last night!) were given a glass of wine to help keep their palates lively as we moved through a somewhat rigorous tasting format.

• Mark Bitterman gave the selmelier’s mini-lecture on the four types of sea salt currently used in the assorted salted caramels offered in the shop.
• Halen Mon Gold oak smoked sea salt from Wales – oaky and warm and mellow with hefty filo dough like flakes
• Iburi Jio Cherry cherrywood smoked deep sea salt form Japan – heady and bacony and silky at the same time
• Amabito no Moshio seaweed salt from Japan – a round and mild mineral-rich salt with lots of savory brothy (umami) flavors.
• Pangasinan Star fleur de sel from the Philippines – brambly and warm and delicately sweet with outsized yet delicate white crystals.
• The David Briggs talked about how he formulates the salt-levels of his caramels as people tasted:
• Unsalted burnt caramel cubes
• Lightly salted caramel cubes (the light is Briggs’s term, as the man loves salt)
• Fully salted caramel cubes (whoa Bessy!)
• Then Dave demonstrated how to make a salted caramel sauce (note: Dave declines to go by the title of caramelier either because he thinks a caramelier fellow in France will be offended or because he worries it might constrain future projects involving bacon or ice cream—or maybe both).
• We took a vote and let the guests choose which salts to put in the caramels based on their tasting.  Every class has been different.  This time the choices were Halen Mon Gold and Pangasinan Star.
• Last, Dave served up home-made chocolate ice cream and guests were allowed to ladle out the salted caramel sauce (or sauces) of choice onto the ice cream.

Jittery, maybe a little buzzed, the crowd at the end of the evening was slow to drift off, doubtless uncertain as to whether dinner, bed, sea kayaking, or something else would be the best outlet for their energy.

Recipe for the Best Salted Caramel Sauce
The first step is to make invert sugar to prevent the sugar in the caramel from spontaneously crystallizing.

Salted Caramel Invert Sugar
3 C          Sugar
1.5 C       Water
1/4 t        Citic acid OR juice of 1/2 lemon
Put ingredients in a non reactive pot and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Caramel Sauce
2 C  Sugar
1 oz  Invert Sugar
1.25 C   Cream, warm
1 oz   Butter
Fleur de sel

Put invert sugar and sugar in a wide high sided non reactive pot on high heat.  Every minute or so slowly mix in granulated sugar with some that is liquefied.  Eventually you will have a paste.  Warm Cream separately.
Continue to cook sugar until it begins to caramelize.  Using a candy thermometer monitor the temperature of the cooking sugar.  The classic caramel stage is around 330-350 degrees F.  You can cook it longer for a less sweet more bitter sauce.  Do not go above 390 F.

When your desired temperature is reached turn off the heat and slowly and very carefully add the warmed cream in small increments.  When the cream is fully incorporated, turn the heat on high and heat the caramel to 230 F.  This will go quite quickly.  Turn off heat and add the butter.  Stir until the butter has completely melted.  Add your desired amount of Fleur de sel or other sea salt.  Let cool.

It will store in the refrigerator for up to 4 months.

I was there to talk salt for a chocolate and salt class for 30 people at Recchiuti’s factory in San Francisco.  While there, I took it upon myself to assume the role of in-house naturalist.  Below are a handful of examples of my attempt to capture, with a cell phone camera, Michael Recchiuti in action.  For my own purposes, I also tried to soak up as much information, technique, and ideas as possible.  I’m still processing the experience, but this is sort of how it went:

Me just off the plane from Portland, he just out from a marathon morning at the chocolate factory, we meet at Piccino, share a bitter salad and a pizza with mildly junipery speck, chat and share a bite of burnt caramel ice cream (made by Recchiuti) with two beautiful women at the table next to us (who introduce themselves the moment the ice cream arrive), then race off to buy glasses for the salt and chocolate class, scheduled for the following day.

Returning to the factory, located in a huge industrial building in the uber hip Dogpatch district of San Francisco, I park my luggage at the door and am introduced to everyone in the “kitchen,” then everyone in the office.  The “kitchen” has mixers, temperers, coaters, conveyor belts, warm rooms, cool rooms, and giant kettles reminiscent of jet engine parts.

We survey the presentation area, chat over ideas about how to seat people, how to present salted caramels (there will be a flight of eight with six salts), where lights should go, where the tent went that was supposed to be here already, where homemade graham crackers can be set out alongside palettes of chocolate melting atop a Himalayan salt block, the general drift of how people will arrive, how they will dredge said graham crackers in said chocolate atop said Himalayan salt block and then find a seat.  How all their knees are going to be touching because the event is fully booked.

Then Michael starts disappearing.  He’s in the humidity controlled walk-in.  He’s rummaging for tubs under a worktable.  He’s grabbing something from a file.  He’s tossing a heavy cast iron pans on a counter top and pouring sugar over butter.  He is up on top of the giant walk in fridge fumbling with octopus plugs.  I intersect with him from time to time, busy either wondering what to do, brainstorming about something that will or will not happen, helping with some random task, photographing something.  We do this for two days together. Michael and his team had been working on it for a least a few days prior to my arrival as well.

I realize that somewhere along the line I’d started eating things.  Michael throws me a cherry bomb, I pluck a caramel-encrusted pecan from a tray, snack on a few real-mint-junior mints, dip my finger in some apricot, gouge a glop of sorbet from the spout of the ice cream machine, gouge a glop of sorbet from the spout of the ice cream machine after some egg white has been added, sprinkle some bamboo salt or sel gris or fleur de sel or smoked salt on each of the above and try them that way. (I’m also not 100% sure that it’s okay for me to be tasting things; this is, after all, a real factory, with spoken and unspoken codes of behavior, defined economies, ongoing production streams, etc.)  But I realize that I’ve already learned something from Michael: eat what you preach, and eat it often.  Which may be simplified as: eat.

(This is not to say that we relied exclusively on chocolate as a fuel source for the long days leading up to the salt and chocolate event.  Recchiuti has just bought a new espresso machine, and he is eager to try it out at every opportunity.)

But by now everything was coming together, which has a soothing effect on me and an intensifying effect on Michael.  Now he is almost impossible to see.  Suddenly spun sugar appears on a tray.  Tarte tatin appears in neat squares.  Marshmallows of flash frozen lime foam glow mysteriously on the counter.  The dish washing station is piling higher and higher with bowls, spatulas, knives, molds, beakers, trays.

I am taking pictures, still, and helping where I can.  I rim glasses for malted milk in powderized cocoa nibs and smoked salt.  I roll chocolate swizzle sticks in flaky salt.  I eat.

The guests arrive, we serve cocktails, and soon, the event is under way.

Menu:

Welcome Cocktail
Champagne Apricot Freeze made with Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs, celery and radish juices, and a salted chocolate swizzle stick.

Dip-It-Yourself Breadsticks
Recchiuti’s housemade graham crackers and single origin chocolate on a Himalayan salt block.

A Classic Opening
Tarte Tatin baked with Sel Gris de L’ile de Noirmoutier and finished with a suspended animation sprinkle of Okinawa Snow salt.

“Palette” Cleanser
Single Origin “Ocumare” by Amano Chocolate. Topped with pistachios, rosemary foraged from Michael’s street and 3x Roasted Korean Bamboo salt.

Frosty Beverage
Chilled Chocolate Malt drink made with El Rey 41% Milk Chocolate and organic roasted barley malt from Oaktown. Finished with a rim of Iburi Jio Cherry salt.

Intermission
Recchiuti factory tour.

Salt Flight
A comparison of six artisan salt caramels: Pangasinan Star, Kona Deep Sea, Shinkai Deep Sea, Halen Mon Gold, Amabito no Moshio, Cyprus Silver.

One Last Dance
House-churned Burnt Caramel Ice Cream (the same one that elicited the attention of the two women at the restaurant the previous day). Garnished with a drizzle of Stonehouse Olive Oil and Haleakala Ruby Salt.

And to take home…
A box of salt caramels to share (or not) with friends.

Two articles I’ve found on (or relating to) the Recchiuti Bitterman Chocolate Salt event so far:

http://www.foodporn.com/pescygourmet/2009/05/recchiuti-salt-and-chocolate-tasting.html
http://www.thedinnerfiles.com/?p=1089

Profits are a nice thing for a company.  What is not nice is when they come at the expense of brand integrity.  Hershey is winding down its “Global Supply Chain Transformation program,” which aims to increase shareholder value rationalizing and restructuring various operations.  To date the company has spent over half a billion dollars on the program.  Buried in all this financial information lurks an inconvenient truth:

“During the fourth quarter of 2008, the scope of the Global Supply Chain Transformation program increased modestly to include the closure of two subscale manufacturing facilities of Artisan Confections Company, a wholly owned subsidiary, and consolidation of the associated production into existing U.S. facilities, along with rationalization of other select items.”

Hershey, the nation’s second-biggest candy maker, owns Artisan Confections Company, which in turns owns Dagoba, Joseph Schmidt, and Scharffen Berger chocolate companies.  Those two “subscale manufacturing facilities” are bay area chocolate companies Joseph Schmidt and Scharffen Berger. 150 people in the area will lose their jobs.

Hershey acquired both the Schmidt and Scharffen Berger companies in 2005, and the chocolate world was abuzz with speculation first about whether, than about how much, the Hershey acquisition would impact the quality of the chocolate.

As the chocolate slid slowly downhill (in many people’s estimations), Hershey’s continued to pursue its “Global Supply Chain Transformation program,” (despite the program sounding a lot like something that the Spice Merchants of Planet Arrakis http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Arrakis would not have appreciated) Hersheys was also reportedly behind a plan to radically improve the profitability of all its chocolate lines.

From what I hear, it was Hershey’s that proposed and pushed a petition to the FDA to allow for the re-formulation of chocolate to allow for using any vegetable oil rather than the cocoa butter naturally found in chocolate.  “By specific language in this Petition document, it would allow for the unlimited use of vegetable fats from any source and at any level to replace the cocoa butter in chocolate and still allow the product to be called chocolate,” said Don’t Mess With Our Chocolate, an organization founded by Guittard Chocolate to combat the petition.

Don’t Mess With Our Chocolate alleged that “the petition would allow liquor to be made by combining purchased cocoa butter and cocoa powder instead of solely being ground from nibs.  In addition, the 50% minimum requirement can be voided if you want slightly reduced fat liquor—say 40%, which does “not rise to the level of a defined nutrient claim” (FDA language). In effect, we would now have a new form of ingredient that would also be called “chocolate liquor” which could then be used to make chocolate and would allow the use of even more vegetable fat in the final product that would be called chocolate.

“The key issue we would face with approval of the Petition in current form is that the marketplace will have two fundamentally different versions of products, yet both would be legally permitted to be called chocolate, resulting in great consumer confusion. While the ingredient label would identify vegetable fat as a component, the front panel would not be required to alert consumers that it is really what the Industry today calls a compound (not 100% cocoa butter) chocolate.”

But then, a miracle: “Cocoa butter is one of the key defining ingredients in chocolate, providing the signature melt-in-your-mouth creaminess and texture.”  Miraculously (or perhaps I should have more faith in industry) Mars jumped into the fray.  “In sharp contrast to recent industry efforts to change the Standards of Identity for chocolate, Mars Snackfood US today announced its support for the current definition of chocolate and pledged to continue to make pure, authentic chocolate with 100% cocoa butter for all of its U.S. chocolate products.”

Todd R. Lachman, President, of Mars Snackfoods US, said: “Even though we could save millions of dollars, we simply won’t compromise the purity and authenticity of our chocolate by diluting it with a cocoa butter substitute. This company was built on quality – it’s one of our core principles – and we will not lower the bar on chocolate quality.  At Mars, the consumer is our boss, and American consumers are passionate about chocolate.”  Word from the FDA was that challenges to such petitions were rarely met with success.

And lo! the heavens trembled and the skies opened and an Almighty Hand reached from the light above to the earth below and smote a terrible blow to the forces of vegetable oil proliferation.  Guittard leading, with Mars stepping up to the plate to defend them, plus the voices of however many squeaky voices like mine and yours, were heard.  The effort to redefine chocolate failed.

No public announcements of this coup were made, to the best of my knowledge.  I only found this out by calling Guittard myself (are they not the most humble chocolate company in the world?) to get an update.  In honor of Guittard’s agitating on behalf of humanity, I suggest you buy a Quevedo 65% Ecuador Bittersweet Chocolate bar (which I just ate for other reasons and which really is just a great chocolate bar).

Picking its hulking frame up and dusting off its hulking shoulders, Hershey’s “Global Supply Chain Transformation program” continued unabated.  The “program” will be completed in 2009, meaning Sharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt have only a short while to live.  Hershey expects total cost of closing the plants to be about $25 million.  In return they will economize to the tune of $5 million annually.  Operations will be consolidated in a plant in Robinson, Ill.

To a normal Joe like me, it might seem crazy for a $5 billion company to trade all the risks (like further degradation of quality and negative public perception) for $5 million in savings—that’s a .1% savings.   However, the cumulative savings for the “Global Supply Chain Transformation program” are expected to be about $81 million, with total ongoing annual savings by 2010 of $175 million to $195 million.  Not small potatoes.

Hershey’s announced: “The financial market and credit crisis has not had a material effect on our business operations or liquidity, to date.  However, the increase in our cost structure and uncertainties in the financial markets and in the broader economy present challenges as we head into 2009.”  Apparently there is no room for the artisan in meeting those challenges.

The main thing is that we have been eating (ahem, I mean tasting) a lot of chocolate bars.

Our Meadow Salted Chocolates were back in stock for a short while!  But no, they are gone again, darn it.  If anyone knows a great, secret local chocolatier who can mold and package our salted chocolate, please do tell.

Also made locally, we now carry Sahagun Handmade Chocolates‘ legendary fleur de sel liquid caramels, and an expanded collection of her lovely “barks.”  There is the Palomitapapa, the Pepitapapa, the Oregon Bark.

Michael Recchiuti fleur de sel caramels have also landed on the shelves, along with boxes of his wild and delicious chocolates.  I confess that part of the reason does not have to do with the fact that his caramels are ridiculously, annoyingly good.  Part has to do with the fact that we just love Michael and his wife Jackie so much, we want to be feel their presence in the shop.  (I’ll post something on a Japanese fusion salt-festooned dinner we all shared at the Heathman not long ago on Saltnews.org sometime soon!).   Local chocolatiers include Sahagun, Xocolatl de David, DePaula Confections, and Lulu’s Chocolate!We have two of the best and brightest new boutique true bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers, Rogue Chocolatier and Patric Chocolate, joining the tide (mmm, tidal chocolate) of new American chocolate makers like Askinosie, Amano, and Taza.  We will share more on them later, but for now… Suffice it to say that both are pursuing things never before achieved in chocolate. Rogue is almost bewilderingly flavorful, with the citrusy licoricey Hispaniola from the Dominican Republic and the Plumy woodsy Sambirano from Madagascar. Patric is sophisticated as can be, playing with varying cocoa butter levels (one of only two artisans who press their own cocoa butter).  Like a wolf and a duck raised in the same crib, the 67% and 70% chocolate bars are more different than they are alike, with interesting qualities.

And we have a bunch of great new chocolates, including about 9 new single origin chocolate bars from Coppeneur.  Not only are they incredibly fun to say aloud (Plantation Hacienda lara, Plantation Menavava, Plantation Uba Budo, Plantation Menavava, etc), they are truly wonderful chocolate bars. And for those of you who look down your nose at milk or flavored chocolate, try the Plantation Tabuna milk chocolate or the Trinidad chocolate with habanero and lavender.

That’s not all.  We have a bunch of new snacky chocolates from Kshocolat, new beautiful chocolate bars from Richard H. Donnelly fine chocolates.  Askinosie Milk chocolates and white chocolates are now available, and they really unusual—definitely worth a try.  We now carry Caoni Chocolate from Ecuador, and to wrap things up.  We have new drinking chocolate from Café Tasse joining the shelves with our existing collection of Marie-Belle drinking chocolate, Weisse, Kshocolat, Guittard, and others.

All will be up on the www.atthemeadow.com soon for online ordering.  All have been eaten and eaten some more, again and again, as we try to educate ourselves on the the positively sensational wave of great new chocolate bars entering the marketplace!  The Golden Age of Chocolate is upon us!

Striving for the World’s Best Chocolate

In a remote corner of the global village, an Italian believes he’s developed the best of all chocolate recipes. Claudio Corallo lives on an island off Nigeria and ships his small-batch chocolate around the world.

Most people, says Claudio Corallo, don’t have the slightest idea what chocolate is — or what it can be. The article continues>>

I imagine Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri, the brother and sister founders of Amedei, were drowning in Champagne on the night of the announcement. Nonetheless, they managed to comment: “We are very proud of this award. Our objective shall always remain that of producing the best chocolate in the world, dedicating it to all our supporters. We thank the Academy of Chocolate for this award, and for the seriousness and passion it puts in its worldwide work in search of good quality chocolate.”

Here is their announcement, edited slightly, because while I respect their palates, “harbouring” all those “colourful” extra ‘u’s hogs up RAM on my “computour.”

Bear in mind here that the London Academy does have some vague geographical and other associations with England, and that these are genuine Britons doing the judging, and that these Britons have traditionally shown a distinct proclivity for all chocolates British. Nonetheless, non-Brits and newcomers from around the world have found their way to some of the top prizes in most categories.

For the third year running, the Italian chocolate house Amedei has won the ‘Golden Bean’: the Best “Bean to Bar’ chocolate award, this time with its Toscano 63%. (In 2007 Amedei virtually swept the awards with the Amedei Chuao taking the top marks for Gold, and Amedei Porcelana and Toscano Black 70% also taking gold.) Michel Cluizel’s Maralumi took a gold as well, as did the Valrhona Araguani). Amedei’s Chuao and Porcelana also won golds. However, this year competition was intense with French producer Valrhona, winning gold awards for its Manjari 64% and Guanaja 70%. Valrhona also scored highest and won the only gold in the Best Milk Bar category.

The Academy of Chocolate Awards 2008 received a record over 300 entries from chocolatier sacross Europe and the United States. s. Judging took place in London over 3 days. Judges included Academy members, leading food journalists such as Charles Campion and renowned chefs such as Mark Hix, as well as international chocolate experts from the U.S., Scandinavia and South America.

The ‘Golden Bean’, Best ‘chocolatier’ dark bar (made from existing liquor or couverture)

• Gold Amedei Toscano 63% (Italy)
• Gold Valrhona Manjari 64% (France)
• Gold Valrhona Guanaja 70%
• Gold Amedei Porcelana
• Gold Amedei Chuao
• Silver Amedei Toscano 66%
• Silver Amedei Toscano 70%
• Silver Amedei No 9
• Bronze Valrhona Caraibe 66%
• Bronze Hotel Chocolat St Lucia 72% (UK)
• Bronze Amano Madagascar 70% (USA)

Best House Dark Chocolate bar

• Gold William Curley 65% (UK)
• Gold William Curley 70%
• Silver Rococo Manjari 64% (UK)
• Silver Pamaco Samatari )(Switzerland)
• Silver Pamaco Maracado
• Bronze Demarquette 65% (UK)
• Bronze L’artisan du Chocolat Venezuela (USA)

Best Milk Chocolate Bar

• Gold Valrhona Jivara 40%
• Silver Amedei Toscano Brown
• Silver William Curley house
• Silver Pamaco Criovemi
• Bronze L’artisan du Chocolat Dominican republic
• Bronze L’artisan du Chocolat Madagascar

Best Flavored Dark Chocolate Bar

• Gold Sir Hans Sloane Rose Petal (UK)
• Gold Valrhona Manjari Orange
• Silver Donnelly’s Rose (USA)
• Silver Donnelly’s Lavender
• Silver Donnelly’s Coffee
• Silver Laurent Gerbaud Bergamot (Belgium)
• Silver Sir Hans Sloane Raspberry
• Silver Sir Hans Sloane Almond
• Bronze Green & Black’s Ginger (UK)
• Bronze New Tree 73% Pink Pepper (USA)
• Bronze Sir Hans Sloane Orange sesame

Best Flavored Milk Chocolate Bar

• Gold Amedei hazelnuts
• Silver L’artisan du Chocolate coffee
• Silver William Curley cinnamon
• Silver La Molina Latte menta (Italy)
• Bronze Paul A Young fennel seeds & ginger (UK)

Winning chocolate bars and drinking chocolates in a variety of other categories includeed:

Best Dark Organic Bar

• Silver Valrhona Cao Grande noir 70%
• Silver The Grenada Chocolate Company 71% (Grenada)
• Bronze Rococo house

Best Flavoured Dark Organic Bar

• Gold Theo fig, fennel & almond (USA)
• Bronze Rococo pink peppercorn

Best Milk Organic Bar

• Silver Valrhona Cao Grande lait

Best Flavored Milk Organic Bar

• Bronze Theo vanilla

Best Drinking Chocolate

• Gold Rococo house
• Gold Theo chipotle spiced
• Silver Paul A Young spiced
• Bronze William Curley chilli
• Bronze William Curley spiced
• Bronze Paul A Young house
• Bronze Grenada Smilo
• Bronze Hotel Chocolat original cocoa stick

Truffles are also judged by the London Academy of Chocolate. The winners of the Academy of Chocolate Awards for 2008 load up UK chocolatier William Curley with an impressive number of medals. These included a spectacular 4 Golds in the Best Filled Chocolate category with his Chuao filled chocolate scoring highest. The judges were particularly impressed by his Japanese Black Vinegar ganache and his Sesame ganache.

Best Ganache Filled Chocolate

• Gold William Curley Chuao
• Gold William Curley framboise
• Gold William Curley sesame
• Gold William Curley Japanese black vinegar
• Gold Theo fig & fennel
• Silver William Curley passion fruit & mango
• Silver Sir Hans Sloane passion fruit
• Silver Melt Amedei
• Silver William Curley thyme & honey
• Silver William Curley Early grey
• Silver William Curley szechuan pepper
• Silver Demarquette lemon
• Silver Melt raspberry
• Bronze Melt tonka, vanilla & sesame
• Bronze Melt passion fruit caramel & mandarin
• Bronze Paul Wayne Gregory coconut
• Bronze Melt orange on praline
• Bronze Indulgence orange
• Bronze William Curley wasabi
• Bronze William Curley jasmine
• Bronze Melt raspberry caramel
• Bronze Paul Wayne Gregory coffee
• Bronze William Curley honey
• Bronze Demarquette coffee
• Bronze Sir Hans Sloane Chinese tea
• Bronze William Curley sudachi
• Bronze Damian Allsop water based ganache
• Bronze Demarquette blanc manger, spices, coconut & rum
• Bronze Hotel Chocolat rabot 62%
• Bronze Auberge du Chocolat amedei house
• Bronze Demarquette honey
• Bronze Chococo cherry & kirsch
• Bronze Damian Allsop salty liquorice

Best Filled Praline or Bonbon

• Gold Guido Gobino salt & olive oil
• Gold William Curley juniper & cassis
• Gold William Curley sea salt caramel
• Silver William Curley fleur de sel
• Silver William Curley raspberry
• Silver Paul Wayne Gregory nuts
• Silver Rococo salt caramel
• Silver Theo sage caramel
• Bronze Hotel Chocolat Gianduja square
• Bronze William Curley pistachio

Best Plain Dark Truffle

• Gold William Curley
• Silver Rococo
• Silver Paul A Young
• Bronze L’artisan du Chocolat

Best Plain Milk Truffle

• Silver William Curley

The judges commented on the very wide range of flavoured chocolates this year, from traditional rose and violet to the fashionable sea salted caramels, as well as spiced chocolates and a move towards Japanese ingredients and natural liquorice. The judges were also impressed by the entries in the drinking chocolate category. Rococo won a Gold for its organic House chocolate as did US chocolate maker Theo for its fair trade organic chocolate chipotle spiced drinking chocolate. The judges remarked how the quality and range of presentation illustrated the revival in chocolate culture. Drinking chocolates were submitted from the UK, Europe and America and were presented as sticks (reminiscent of how the Mayans and Aztecs produced chocolate from as far back as the 10th century), flakes, powder, bars and nuggets.

Sara Jayne Stanes, OBE, chair of the Academy of Chocolate says of the Awards “The awards grow year on year and we were delighted with the number, and quality, of entries we received this year. We hope that these annual Awards will help consumers, retailers and restaurateurs to make enlightened choices about the chocolate they buy.

Thanks folks at the London Chocolate Academy for your brilliant work!