The great chocolate flavour competition: the winners


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I've been overwhelmed and inspired by all the suggestions, comments and creative flavour combinations sent in for our chocolate flavour competition. You are all very creative and not at


all frightened to push the barriers of what can be turned into a fine chocolate. I spend a big chunk of my time developing new and creative chocolates, working up to six months ahead, and


do suffer from creative block from time to time. Occasionally I struggle to mentally blend the flavours and textures before deciding which to create edible examples of. Reading through all


your suggestions made me smile (and at times laugh out loud) and I am sure many of you would be an excellent presence at my brainstorming sessions. My choice of winning entries was based on


several factors. I considered flavour balance and combinations, textures, the creativity of the idea, and whether each could actually be made into a chocolate which wouldn't be out of


place in our award-winning chocolate shops. The competition was incredibly tight and I honestly wanted to choose a whole handful of your suggestions - even brown sauce, smoked haddock or


lavender and seaweed! Nevertheless, I'm now happy to announce that the winning WoMers are: NEENY, with a combination of carrot, orange, cinnamon, ginger and cream cheese; and KIRKYME,


with apple, Marmite and parsnip. CONGRATULATIONS! I love the way Neeny has taken inspiration from carrot cake. I think many of my customers will love this chocolate for its indulgent,


comforting qualities. Carrot and cream cheese are great partners for chocolate. I sell a Marmite truffle, so when I saw Kirkyme also thought of using this love or hate ingredient I had to


choose it. I'm totally inspired by the addition of parsnip and apple, and relish the challenge of getting this to balance and become a finished chocolate. I know it will be a very


creative and interesting finished product. I'll be turning Neeny and Kirkyme's flavour combinations into chocolates which will be sold in my shops very soon, and it'll be very


interesting to see which combination comes out on top. Thanks to all of you who sent in your ideas and thoughts. I'm incredibly thrilled to have had such a great response.