2009 Chocolate Awards diary – part 2

Well, that’s it. The 2009 Awards are finally over. Almost. I know the Academy still owes some entrants feedback. Logistical problems and a desire to do things properly have made that really overdue. Sorry to all those waiting, we will get back to you. Apart from some temps we hired to help with data entry, running the Awards is a purely voluntary effort, though it has at times felt more like a full time job.

When you have an idea or start a project, it’s always hard to be realistic about the amount of work involved. Often the hours required will double or triple from your first estimates. The Awards have certainly sucked up a huge amount of  hours from all of us involved. Sometimes, it’s felt like a thankless task. I guess it’s a sign of success to have critics – if the Awards didn’t matter, they would probably be ignored.

At times we may have wondered if it’s all worthwhile, but events like the Awards party last week remind us of the value of bringing together and celebrating the work of the UK and World fine chocolate communities.

On the hottest night of the year so far in the UK – not ideal conditions for a chocolate party – chocolatiers, bean to bar chocolate makers, cacao exporters, food writers, radio broadcasters, international judges and Academy members came together to support and celebrate the big prize winners as well as all the entrants in the 2009 Awards.

As usual at these events, it was hard to find enough time to talk with everyone and to catch up with all the old and new friends present, and to try all of the winning entries on hand. We did our best though!

The winners

This year saw Amedei and William Curley continue their previous successes, but not without the presence of upcoming challengers.

In the Bean to Bar category, Utah based newcomer Amano gave Amedei a close run for their money, taking one Gold, two Silvers and one Bronze in the premier category of the Awards.

Fine chocolate is what the Academy is all about, so the awards for a chocolate company making directly from the bean are the most important of the whole line up.

Valrhona managed only one Gold this year, not helped by the abscence of their vintage range, which wasn’t submitted due to an error. (Their error I might add).

In a similar vein, Amedei’s Chuao wasn’t entered, this time by choice, possibly because Amedei no longer have exclusivity for beans from the famous valley. This left the door open for their ‘9′, which took the coveted ‘Golden Bean’, for which we just about had a shiney new logo ready for presentation on the night.

Special awards

For the second year running, the Academy made some additional awards at the ceremony to recognise particular achievement or contributions in the chocolate world.

The first of these was presented right at the start of the night. The Special Award for 2009 went to Graig Sams and Jo Fairley for creating the Green & Black’s brand and ‘Changing the way people think about chocolate’.

Green & Black’s may be just an industrial product now and an extension of the Cadbury range, but 25 years ago the products were something quite revolutionary. One of the first 70% bars available in the UK and with Maya Gold, the first Fair Trade product in the world.

In an additional discretionary award, the Academy recognised the huge acheivement of US chocolate maker Amano in creating bean to bar chocolate good enough to stand up to the best in the world, despite having been in production for less than three years.

In my opinion, Amano have really shown that the secret weapon in chocolate making is taste, and if you are prepared to aim high and be self-critical, you really can go all the way. It’s going to be really interesting how the company develops over the next few years and whether any other new chocolate makers – in the US or otherwise – can match their results.

For full details of all the winners and all the chocolatiers I’ve neglected to mention, see the Academy of Chocolate site, where I suspect there will be a full photo feature up soon.

The final announcement of the night was the news that the Academy won’t hold Awards next year – we’d long planned to have a break and take a year off given the marathon we’ve been running for the last few years. Instead the Academy is planning an international conference about fine chocolate and cacao, to be held early spring 2010. We’re only just formulating the details, but look out for more news in the forthcoming months.

It’s a relief to have the Awards done and dusted for two years. I feel a whole other bunch of work for the conference coming on though. The things we do for chocolate …