Nelson-based fine chocolate producer Hogarth Craft Chocolate has secured a second raft of global awards wins in two weeks, taking home four gold awards in the 2017 International Chocolate Awards, announced on 27 June.
Hogarth won gold again for their Dark Hazelnut Gianduia bar, Gran Blanco Peru bar, and for their Milk Hazelnut Chocolate Log. The company also received gold in a special awards section as a ‘Micro batch – chocolate maker’. They were the only maker to be given an award in this section.
Hogarth was the only New Zealand producer to make the finals in the Asia-Pacific section of the International Chocolate Awards, alongside chocolate producers from Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Australia. This is the first year that the Asia-Pacific entrants have been placed in a separate competition to the Americas, due to the record number and quality of entries from both regions. More than 1000 individual entries were received in 2017, including more than 650 plain and flavoured chocolate bars.
The International Chocolate Awards were founded in 2012 and are run by a group of independent international partners based in the UK, Italy and the USA, with years of experience tasting and evaluating chocolate. To cope with the amount of entries in the competition, it is divided into regions – Americas, Asia-Pacific, British, Scandinavian and Italian-Mediterranean. International Chocolate Awards judges include a wide range of experts, tasters, pastry chefs, food journalists, bloggers, sommeliers, chefs and the International Chocolate Awards ‘grand jury’.
Marina and Karl Hogarth are thrilled with the result, particularly given they were up against such robust international competetion. “Starting our business has taken all our ingenuity and commitment over the past few years,” says Karl Hogarth. “To have our chocolate recognised with such a flurry of awards is a little overwhelming to be honest, but we are taking a moment to really celebrate this moment together. Thank you to everyone who supports us and believes in us and our products.”
Tuesday’s International Chocolate Awards gold award successes come just one week after Hogarth won gold for its Dark Hazelnut Gianduia bar, and silver for both its Acul du Nord Haiti and Gran Blanco Peru bars in the 2017 Academy of Chocolate awards.
