One Wellington-based chocolatier brought home two awards at the inaugural NZ Vegan Chocolate Awards.
The Wellington Chocolate Factory took out the Dark Chocolate Category for its Peru Dark Bar and the Milk Chocolate Category for its Coconut Milk Bar.
The win for the Peru Dark Bar joins six international and national awards under its belt for the vegan bar. WCF’s limited-edition ANZAC bar and its Drinking Chocolate were also runners up in their categories.
The 2022 Awards are the first from the Vegan Society of Aotearoa New Zealand and recognise the incredible growth and variety available to vegan chocolate fans. In deciding winners, judges tasted as many as 36 different bars in each category.
The judges described WCF’s Peru bar as super smooth with a very appealing aroma, while the Coconut Milk Bar has excellent colour, aroma and shine.
WCF co-founder Gabe Davidson says they’ve been making plant-based chocolate since opening almost 10 years ago and began at a time when it wasn’t so easy to find.
"Our chocolate is bean-to-bar – what this means is we use very few additional ingredients apart from cocoa beans and only add what enhances the bean’s flavour. On their own, cocoa beans are incredibly complex – in a single bean, you can taste everything from tropical fruit to spices. When the beans are the hero, you don’t need to add much else to produce a delicious chocolate bar," he says.
WCF continues to innovate and create new and exciting vegan bars. Its latest collaboration with Scapegrace – the Espresso Martini Dark Chocolate Bar – is vegan. Gabe Davidson says they’re always looking for more ways to create great tasting plant-based chocolate.
"These awards recognise our talented chocolate makers, who are dedicated to their craft. I’m proud to be part of a team whose mission is to make fine chocolate that creates a positive wider impact. The food industry is changing rapidly; we at WCF are excited to be one on the right side of this revolution."
WCF’s Peru Bar is consistently one of the WCF’s best sellers.
