In what sounds like one of the best jobs around, judges have sampled and selected 125 chocolates from New Zealand producers to find the best in the country.
In its first year, the New Zealand Chocolate Awards announced the two supreme winners as an Auckland-based husband and wife team and a Wellington woman who balances her fulltime job with her boutique chocolate making.
If you're looking to up the anti on your usual chocolate bar fix, the panel of 17 judges believe nothing beats Honest Chocolat's Salted Caramel and Milk Chocolate Tablet. The creation of Nico Bonnaud, a chocolatier who trained in France, and his wife, Emily, the pair hand craft chocolates in small batches using only natural ingredients.
And the winner of the best filled chocolate on the market is the Chocolate Salted Sesame and Caramel Bonbon by Joanne McAlpine of Jo's Sublime Chocolate. McAlpine is a former chef who took a chocolate tempering course in Wellington before training in Melbourne. Her creations are sold at La Bella Italia restaurant in Petone.
Best in class winners included the best chocolate bark or brittle, which went to She Universe's Sassy Sesame Snap and the best product that uses a premium chocolate brand was deemed Fix & Fogg's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.
