The featured festival event was the award ceremony for the first Dominican Chocolate Competition. Participating chocolatiers entered a total of 40 chocolate samples in three categories: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and experimental chocolate. An official judging panel of domestic and international industry professionals and experts evaluated the chocolate. There was also a public judging panel of 400 consumers, each of whom received five random chocolates to evaluate.
The official panel awarded nine winning chocolates in the three categories according to physical appearance, mouthfeel, fragrance, flavor-aroma balance, global quality and global impression:
Milk chocolate
Gold: Milz Chocolat 50% cocoa with milk
Dark chocolate
Gold: ChocoPunto 70% cocoa
Silver: Milz Chocolat 70% cocoa
Bronze: ChocoPunto 78% cocoa
Experimental chocolate
Gold: Milz Chocolat 50% cocoa with milk and coffee
Silver: Definite Chocolate 57% cocoa with cashew milk and macadamia
Silver: KahKow Vestige 65% cocoa
Bronze: Choco Punto 78% unsweetened cocoa with cocoa nibs
The public panel highlighted the Dominican consumer’s palate. The People’s Choice award took the texture, flavors and overall impression of the sample into consideration and awarded the following:
Milk chocolate
Milz 50% cocoa
Dark chocolate
Milz 70% cocoa
Experimental chocolate
CONACADO 70% with dehydrated and candied tomato
The similarity between the public and professional panels’ evaluations showcases impressive demand from the local palate.
The Dominican Chocolate Festival and Dominican Chocolate Competition are initiatives of Exporting Quality, a USDA-funded program implemented in the Dominican Republic by IESC. The Dominican Republic is a global leader in the production and export of organic cocoa. Together, the festival and the competition promote the expression of the diversity of the aromas of Dominican fine cacao in chocolate and at the same time educate the domestic and international consumers about Dominican chocolate.
The Exporting Quality program created festivalchocolate.do to organize the festival and now, serve as a reference portal for Dominican chocolate.
Visit festivalchocolate.do. for a complete list of winners.
Follow the Dominican Chocolate Competition and the Dominican Chocolate Festival on social media for a behind-the-scenes look:
Instagram: festivalchocolate.do
Instagram: concursodominicanodechocolate
