We won a Silver at the 2011 Academy of Chocolate Awards!
I can hardly believe it but our 'House Truffle- Milk' has been awarded a Silver Medal at the very prestigious Academy of Chocolate Awards.
We only decided to enter at the last minute and I owe it to several of our followers on twitter for encouraging us to 'give it a go'.
Set up in 2005 to promote the eating of fine chocolate, the Academy of Chocolate has the renowned chef and restaurateur Michael Roux OBE as its patron. The annual Academy of Chocolate awards are the most prestigious in the chocolate industry, attracting entries from chocolate makers and chocolatiers from all over the world. In previous years the awards have been dominated by London based chocolatiers such as William Curley & Paul a Young, & international chocolate companies such as Amedei & Valrhona.
This year the net seemed to be cast a little wider and the general impression in the industry was that the Academy were trying to attract more diverse entries while still being true to their aims of promoting real chocolate over chocolate confectionery.
We entered 4 categories in total (2 chocolate products & 2 packaging) & while our 'House Truffle- Dark' & our packaging entries were not placed our 'House Truffle - Milk' was awarded a Silver, behind Gold winner - William Curley (for whom I have enormous respect).
Our winning milk chocolate truffle is created using a single origin chocolate from Indonesia, a single origin cocoa powder form Tanzania and fresh local cream from Kenyons Dairy in Summerseat, Bury. The truffles are made on site in Ramsbottom and due to their short shelf life they are only created for busy trading periods or for special orders.
There was several other first time winners and its good to see so many quality independent chocolate businesses being represented. You can view the full Academy of Chocolate Award results here: http://www.academyofchocolate.org.uk/academy/Awards/2011.html
A huge thanks to everyone who has supported us & taken time to share their knowledge of chocolate (you all know who you are!)
This has capped of a terrific week for us after a tremendously successful Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival over the weekend. An estimated 27,000 people visited the festival and you can read all about the festival here http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Lancashire/Bury/BL0/News/Local-News/193826-Love-Ramsbottom-Love-Chocolate-Love-Ramsbottom-Chocolate-Festival