A little over a month ago, the Catalan Lluc Crusellas was crowned as the best master chocolatier in the world, and now Spain can also boast of having artisans from the bean to bar whose chocolate bars have been awarded in the most prestigious international competition in the sector. There are four artisan chocolate brands with a Spanish seal that have achieved several medals in the latest edition of the International Chocolate Awards.
The International Chocolate Awards (ICAfor its acronym in English) this edition is exactly ten years old since they began their journey in 2012. They were born as an independent competition to recognize and value the work and excellence of the best chocolates in the world made with quality raw materials, respecting the cocoa itself and creating our own recipes in an artisanal way.
That is the spirit of the so-called chocolate bean to bara movement that claims to return to the same cocoa origins to make their products, selecting and roasting each artisan their own grains, paying a fair price to the producers in decent working conditions and controlling all the ingredients and phases of the process.
These chocolates have little to do with the tablets that flood supermarkets around the world under multinational brands, which often also offer very flat flavors, excessively sweet or very sour, with little aroma and made up with other ingredients. They are also more expensive, obviously, but they ask to be appreciated, tasted and enjoyed calmlyas the selected quality product that they are.
Our country has excellent artisans who defend this way of working and maximum transparency, and they have been recognized by these awards in their latest edition.
Cocoa House
The sweet project born under the umbrella of El Celler de Can Roca, headed by Jordi Roca from Gerona after his investigations into the very origins of Amazonian cocoa, he has a catalog of chocolates and other delicacies that always attract attention due to their suggestive names and mixtures of ingredients.
In this case, the winning tablet is The Macallan Dark Chocolate Bar 70%, and has obtained the silver medal in the category of dark chocolates with flavors or infusions. It is an 80 g tablet made with Venezuelan cocoa from the Casa Caribe Hacienda in Las Trincheras, roasted at Casa Cacao and fermented with The Macallan Double Cask 12 Year Old Whiskey for six months. It can be purchased online for 17 euros.
Chocolate bean to bar pout
Puchero is the project of Paloma and Marco, who work from their cocoa and coffee roaster in Hornillos de Eresma (Valladolid), with the maxim of respecting and promoting the work of the farmers who produce the grains they select from all over the world to make their products.
This edition has received the silver medal award in the same category as Casa Cacao for its tablet Pine Nut 50%, a fine dark chocolate from Criollo and Trinitario cacao produced on the Soconusco farm in Mexico. They add to the chocolate natural pine nut from Tierra de Pinares without toasting The 70 g tablet can be purchased for 8.50 euros in his store.
Utopick Cocoa
We already talked about this artisan chocolate and bonbon workshop when we brought here its Advent calendar from last year. From Valencia they work Juana Rojas and Paco Llopis transmitting all his passion for true quality chocolate and the respect and transparency of ingredients and processes, making tablets with great creativity.
The award-winning has been precisely one of its latest novelties, not yet available for purchase but which will soon be on sale to the public. The tablet wild pepper has obtained the gold medal in the category of milk chocolates, made with 56% cocoa of origin and wild pepper.
Wikichoco – Utopick Experience – Original chocolate gift – Experience for up to 12 people
Kaitxo Specialty Coffee & Chocolate
We are now heading to the Basque Country to tempt ourselves with another wide catalog of chocolate bars bean to bar and specialty coffee. From Balmaseda, the team led by Jon Mikel and Raquel roasts the selected beans and there they make a wide variety of chocolates from different origins and various formats.
The ICA have awarded this year a new silver medal to their already famous tablet Tanzania Kokoa Kamili 75%, in the category of micro lots of dark chocolate of origin. It is a chocolate made with criollo honeyed cocoa from the Kilombero valley in Mogororo (Tanzania). The 70 g unit can be purchased at its online store and also at El Club Gourmet.
Dark chocolate tablet 75% Bean To Bar Tanzania Kokoa Kamili Kaitxo
Chocolate Txoko
Finally, in the same category of micro batches we have the bronze medal that the tablet has obtained Txokolate Beltza 65% of Chocolate Txoko. In charge of the Balmaseda workshop is the co-founder Raquel González Setien, who works with selected grains from the Sambirano valley in Madagascar.
This tablet is one of the only three that currently make up its catalogue, with varieties of Trinitario, Forastero and Criollo cocoa. It can be found at the moment gourmet shops and some hypermarkets of Eroski in the Basque Country (Leioa, Bilbondo, Garbera, Artea, Arrasate, Usurbil, Abadiño and Ballonti).
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