London Chocolate wins Bronze at the International Chocolate Awards World Final – the Oscars of Chocolate making
London is now synonymous with some of the world’s best chocolate, as Canary Wharf based bean-to-bar maker, London Chocolate, received a Bronze medal at the International Chocolate Awards World Finals this weekend. Most remarkably, the company was started by a London couple, Alex Heeley and Asel Nova, just six months ago and is already competing and winning against the world’s best makers.
“When we started we wanted to bring the finest bean-to-bar chocolate to Londoners, and we have tried hundreds of beans (someone has to), but we had no idea we would get international recognition so soon. It’s really been a whirlwind journey and we would like to make London famous as the city home to the best chocolate in the world,” commented cofounder Alex Heeley.
London Chocolate received a Bronze in the ‘plain/origin dark chocolate bars’ category – the most fiercely contested and prestigious category at the awards. The secret behind the company’s success is using just two ingredients – fine flavour cacao beans and natural cane sugar – and unique roasting approach, which brings out far more complex and fruity flavours. London Chocolate is helping to pioneer the bean to bar revolution sweeping through Europe for customers looking to explore the true taste of chocolate.
But not only does it taste amazing, the Docklands based maker is opening a new chapter for the area as the only remaining importer and is committed to ethical trading – with 5% of profits for sustainable communities.
“It was extremely important to Asel that we did this for the benefit of all the communities we touch and we know our producers personally. In fact, I have the easy job of tasting and marketing, she is real star of the show as the chocolate maker. She is always working to improve the bars, with every little detail remaining important in the process.” Alex added
London Chocolate, having conquered the world, is now planning an extensive push to become more widely available throughout the city. Cofounder and chocolate maker, Asel added: “It’s amazing that we now officially make one of the best chocolate bars in the world here in London, but so few Londoners have yet to had the chance to try it.”
The bars are available online at londonchocolate.co.uk and they hope they will shortly be available at Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Liberty and Selfridges. Asel added, “We have been in touch with them a few times, but surely we can be expecting those calls back now!”
