Awards

Best Cacao in the World

International Star for Quality in Leadership · Gold · Paris

Öko Caribe, the Dominican company that brings together 199 organic cacao growers, earned the International Star for Quality in Leadership award in the gold category, a distinction granted in Paris.

Öko Caribe was founded in April 2006 with the aim of producing organic cacao that stands apart in quality from other companies trading the product in the country. It exports to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and has also exported to Canada.

The company received the award after joining Calidad para Competir (Quality to Compete), an initiative promoted by the National Competitiveness Council (CNC) to raise the quality of Dominican products.

Via Listín Diario.

Öko Caribe receiving the Star for Quality in Leadership award in Paris

Best Chocolate in the World

Golden Bean · Academy of Chocolate, London

The Academy of Chocolate Golden Bean trophy

Hummingbird Chocolate, a small company in Almonte, Canada, has been awarded the best bean to bar chocolate in the world, made with cacao from Öko Caribe S.R.L., Dominican Republic.

At a ceremony held by the Academy of Chocolate in London, Hummingbird's Hispaniola bar beat 14 other world gold winners to take the coveted Golden Bean award, becoming the first Canadian company to win the prestigious prize.

"We thought it was so unlikely that we would win that we had completely forgotten about the awards ceremony. When we found out the night before that we had won, we wished we had got on a plane to London." Erica Gilmour, who started the company with her husband Drew in 2011

The award, a golden bean on a pedestal, will be sent to the Gilmours.

Their Hispaniola bar, made with organic cacao beans from the Dominican Republic, beat global heavyweights such as Akesson's of England, Amedei of Italy and Michel Cluizel of France. More than 580 different chocolates from around the world entered the first stage of the competition in the spring, and were assessed by over 40 chocolate experts. Alongside the gold for Hispaniola, Hummingbird also won three silvers and a bronze.

Although Hummingbird now makes bars from several different countries, it was the cacao beans from Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, that first convinced Drew Gilmour, a former aid worker, that they should try making chocolate.

"What I love about this award is that these were the first beans we ever made chocolate with, in our basement. I suppose we have an intimate knowledge of them." Erica Gilmour

The Academy of Chocolate said in a press release that a record 14 gold medal winners shows "how much bean to bar quality has improved." From that selection, "the Golden Bean went to the highest scoring entry, Hummingbird Chocolate's Hispaniola 70%, which was universally praised by the judges."

The Gilmours, who live in Stittsville, were international aid workers. They import cacao beans directly from farmers in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Vietnam, paying above fair trade prices, and then make their bars using traditional, hands on techniques.

"While we have had a hand in things, good chocolate is about excellent beans. That is why we are so grateful for the excellent cacao the farmers grow in the north of the Dominican Republic." Drew Gilmour

The company has repeatedly outgrown its manufacturing spaces, and recently moved in Almonte into the former 2,000 square foot home of Equator Coffee, another Ottawa Valley company committed to paying farmers above fair trade prices.