World Chocolate Awards

The winners of this year's World Chocolate Awards run by the Academy of Chocolate are:

Best UK Chocolatier
L’Artisan du Chocolat

Best Dark Chocolate Bar – sponsored by Twining’s
Gold: Amedei Chuao
Silvers: Amedei 9
Amedei Porcelana
Bronze: L’Artisan du Chocolat Madong

Best Milk Chocolate Bar
Bronze: Scharffen Berger

Best Filled Chocolate
Golds: La Maison du Chocolat, Mint Ganache
Paul A Young, Sea-salted Caramel
Chococo, Gorgeous Ginger
William Curley, Chuao truffle
Silvers: 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
Bronzes: Rococo, Chilli truffle
Chococo, Chilli
Summerdown, Peppermint Cream

Best Dark Truffle
Gold: William Curley
Silvers: Paul A Young
L’Artisan du Chocolat
Bronzes: La Maison du Chocolat
Rococo

Best Milk Truffle
Silver: L’Artisan du Chocolat

Best Organic Dark Chocolate Bar
Silver: Valrhona CAO
Bronzes: Green & Black’s 70%
Rococo Organic

Best Organic Milk Chocolate Bar
No awards

Best Bean to Bar Chocolate Makers Bar
Golds: Amedei Chuao
Amedei Porcelana
Silver: Valrhona Palmira 2005
Bronzes: Grenada
Pralus Java
Amedei 9
Valrhona Jivara (milk)

Sara Jayne-Stanes chair 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 and Kate Johns of nudge pr.