Fu Wan Chocolate, founded by Taiwan’s first certified chocolate taster Warren Hsu, has had a spectacular showing at the “Oscars of the world of chocolate,” the International Chocolate Awards (ICA), winning the best in competition award in the “plain/origin dark bar” category with its Taiwan no. 1 62 percent Ping Tung Chocolate.
Q sweet (premium chocolates & sweets) from Taipei received two bronze awards in the “white chocolate bars with inclusions or pieces” category. Founder Queenie was absolutely delighted, saying that this year was the first time she had entered the competition, and for two of her products to pick up an award in the final was both surprising and exciting. She said, “to be able to come here and compete with the world’s top chocolatiers was a marvelous recognition of my skills, and to become the first person from Taiwan to win the ICA white chocolate bars with inclusions or pieces category has given me huge inspiration on my journey in the world of chocolate.”
Taiwan’s biggest winner in this year’s event, Fu Wan Chocolate, secured five golds, 10 silvers and four bronzes, giving it a total of 18 awards, and all of its entries were created from Taiwanese cocoa beans, which came as quite a surprise to the judges. When ICA chairman Martin Christy was handing out the best in competition plain/origin dark bar chocolate award, he said to the chocolatiers from all over the world present, “you all need to watch out: Taiwan chocolate is on a roll!”
Photo courtesy of Q sweet (premium chocolates & sweets)
照片：Q sweet精品甜點提供
Collecting the award, Hsu said, “It means a lot to receive an award for the world’s best dark chocolate in Guatemala, the birthplace of the Mayan civilization cacao culture. We will continue to work harder. Thank you, Taiwan!” Fu Wan Chocolate not only uses cocoa beans from Pingtung, it has from its inception worked together with local cocoa farms to produce its very own cocoa bean, to give its own unique local flavor.
The International Chocolate Awards began in 2012, and is judged by experts from all over the world. The entries are first selected from over a dozen regions, including the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Belgium, France and the UK, and the winners from these regions then progress to the world finals. The competition is the world’s largest, most demanding and most stringent contest for appraising the quality of chocolate.
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
Photo courtesy of Fu Wan Chocolate via CNA
照片：中央社／福灣巧克力提供
台灣第一位國際巧克力品鑑師許華仁創立的「福灣巧克力」，在有「巧克力界奧斯卡」之稱的「世界巧克力大賽 」決賽中展現驚人能量，以「台灣一號屏東黑巧克力62%」奪得最大獎「世界最佳黑巧克力」。
來自北市的「Q Sweet精品甜點」拿下「最佳調味白巧克力類」兩個銅牌。品牌創辦人Queenie十分開心地表示，她今年首次參賽，能入圍總決賽兩個品項，又驚又喜，「能和來自全球頂尖的巧克力師競逐技藝，是很大的肯定；而能夠成為台灣首位拿下ICA白巧克力調味類獎項的得獎者，也將激勵我在巧克力之路奮勉不懈。」
台灣最大贏家「福灣巧克力」此次共摘下五金、十銀、四銅及特別獎，共十八個獎項，且所有參賽作品皆以台灣巧克力豆製作，令評審十分驚豔，ICA主席Martin Christy在頒發「世界最佳黑巧克力」獎項時，對著全球巧克力業者說：「大家要注意囉！台灣巧克力來勢洶洶！」
許華仁領獎時，特別提到：「在瓜地馬拉這個馬雅可可文明的發源地，能夠拿到世界最佳黑巧克力獎，意義非凡。我們會繼續努力！謝謝台灣！」福灣巧克力不只使用來自屏東的可可豆為原料，更從源頭就與在地可可農合作，獨家發酵法讓新鮮在地的可可豆，展現來自土地的好風味。
「世界巧克力大賽」始於二○一二年，評審為來自世界各地的業界專家，賽事劃分為美洲、亞太、比利時、法國、英國等十多個區域先進行評選，各區域得獎者才能晉升全球決賽，是巧克力業界公認規模最大、評比標準也最嚴謹的賽事。
（自由時報）
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