Editor’s Note: We’ve received this exciting news from Erica and Drew Gilmour, the owners of Almonte’s Hummingbird Chocolate Makers.

In May we were awarded six medals by the UK-based Academy of Chocolate:
Gold – Hispaniola 70%
Silver – Vietnam Lam Dong 70%
Silver – Alta Verapaz Guatemala 70%
Silver – Fleur de Sel
Bronze – Reserva Zorzal 70%
Bronze – Honey Lavender
Last Friday the Academy held their awards gala at the Athenaeum Hotel in London. While we couldn’t attend, we were more than a little surprised and very much elated to learn that the jury awarded our Hispaniola 70% bar the prestigious ‘Golden Bean’, considering it the best chocolate in the global competition.
Hummingbird is the first Canadian chocolate maker to win this award.
It’s a great feeling to know our small, madly passionate team creates chocolate that is among the world’s best. They rock.
While we have a hand in things, good chocolate is all about great beans. That’s why we’re so grateful for the outstanding cacao grown by farmers in northern Dominican Republic.
The Academy said in its press release:
The Golden Bean went to the highest scoring entry, universally praised by the jury, Hummingbird Chocolate’s Hispaniola 70%. Ontario chocolatiers Erica and Drew Gilmour were elated to hear that the top accolade had been given to their ‘unique magical bean’, the one they used when they first made chocolate at home as a hobby in 2011.