EVENTS

Costa Rica
25 April 2008

During 2007 Puratos Netherlands initiated an exciting new national chocolate competition. Over 40 Dutch Chocolatiers competed in several rounds over a three month period to win the title “The Most Delicious Bonbon of The Netherlands”. The goal was to stimulate the chocolatier profession in the Netherlands, and build the Belcolade image. The winner, announced by the professional jury, won a trip to Costa Rica. 20 chocolatiers and professional press also chose to join the winner in Costa Rica. One of the highlights of this journey was the visit to the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ cocoa plantation from which Belcolade sources its Costa Rican origin beans.

The birthday celebration consisted of a chocolate cocktail competition. All participants were permitted to use the 9 origins from Belcolade's "Collection Range", the Costa Rican Origin cocoa mass, Costa Rican liquor and local fruits. The goal was to create an innovative chocolate cocktail.

The result….a great success! Over ten different cocktails were created. These were judged by Norbert Koreman, the chief editor of Culinaire Saisonnier and Patisserie & Desserts; Marc van Hulst, General Manager Puratos Netherlands, Sergio Schermel (Manager Villas RioMar, Jungle & Beach resort) and Matt Crumpton, Puratos Marketing Manager SBU Chocolate. The atmosphere was divine! The location and the tropical weather motivated participants, and in spite of the hot and humid environment, and very successful cocktails were created.

The winning creation was "Chocolate Surprise" of Jan Willem Jansen (Dutch Pastry Team, and Patisserie De Rouw - Vught). Matt Crumpton summarized the jury's opinion: this cocktail scored the most consistently in all three categories: Originality, Taste and Appearance. The cocktail was made using Belcolade's Lait Collection Costa Rica 38. Norbert Koreman complemented this initiative by stating, "One thing has become very clear to me, chocolate has many more applications than the ones we have been using so far. I see plenty more opportunities for different competitions!"