Canadians win gold, bronze at chocolate awards

Dec. 1, 2014, Vancouver — Count ‘em: two golds, four silvers, seven bronzes. Canadian chocolate companies took home 13 medals in the world finals of the International Chocolate Awards.

Dec. 1, 2014, Vancouver — Count ‘em: two golds, four silvers, seven
bronzes. Canadian chocolate companies took home 13 medals in the world
finals of the International Chocolate Awards.

On the heels of its gold medal win in the Canadian national competition, Chez Christophe Chocolaterie and Patisserie (Burnaby, BC) grabs gold in the world finals for its Bonbons Ananas Avocat. Another world gold goes to Edmonton’s The Violet Chocolate for its Honey Rosemary bar, which will pair nicely with two bronze medals for its Rose Mint and Pumpkin Chai bars.

From Calgary, Cococo Chocolatiers wins its first world medal—silver—for its honey anise confection. A slew of silver medals goes to Vancouver’s Beta5 Chocolates for its Rosemary Caramel, Carrot Cake praline and Yuzu Curd confection. Beta5 also picked up bronzes for its Sparkling Praline and its Fisherman’s Friend confection (winner of the 2013 world gold). In addition, bronze medals went to Gusto Chocolate (Maple Ridge, BC) for its Dolce Vita white chocolate bark, and to Edmonton’s Sweet Lollapalooza for its Almond Coconut Praline.

Notably, Toronto’s Soma Chocolate wins a bronze in the dark plain/origin bar category, which recognizes companies that make chocolate directly from the cacao bean. The International Chocolate Awards runs the world’s largest and most rigorously judged bean-to-bar competition. Soma’s win for its Nacional Peru bar marks the first time a Canadian has won an award in this category, and puts Canada on the map for artisanal chocolate making, along with industry leaders from Ecuador, France, Sweden and Iceland.

A full list of winners follows this press release. Canadian winners competed against medal-winners from the European and Americas semi-final rounds, and regional competitions held in Canada, Scandinavia and Germany/Austria/Switzerland. The world finals were judged November 4–7, 2014, in London, England.

The International Chocolate Awards is an independent competition recognizing excellence in fine chocolate making and in the products made with fine chocolate. The awards were founded in 2012 based on years of experience running chocolate awards and other events in the UK, and are run by a group of international partners based in the UK, Italy and the United States. The Vancouver competition is run by Eagranie Yuh, author of The Chocolate Tasting Kit.