A DARTMOOR-BASED chocolate company has won a gold medal in the regional round of a national award scheme.
Browne?s Chocolates have received a gold medal for their chocolate orange, produced at the family business?s headquarters between Chagford and Okehampton, in The Great Taste Awards organised by the Guild of Fine Food Retailers.
Judges were impressed by the entry to the candied fruit class because of ?the balance of chocolate with not-too-sweet fruitiness of the orange?.
Gold medalists have to be ?a faultless food of distinction?.
They will now go forward to the next round of judging, along with 39 other South West gold medalists, to be held at prestigious London food store Fortnum and Mason. Here they will have the chance to be named Best in the South West, Best of British or the top accolade of Supreme Champion.
In their tenth year of entry Browne?s also received a silver for their Mint Chaser after-dinner mints and bronze medals for their chocolate covered macademia nuts and strawberry truffles.
Richard Taylor-Young of Browne?s Chocolates said: ?We are very pleased to have won these awards and are looking forward to the next round in London.
?Last year a lemon curd won the Supreme Champion, so you never know how things will turn out,? he said.
?We were founder associate members of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers ten years ago and have been going to the trade shows ever since,? said Richard.
?We are off to the Speciality and Fine Food Fair in Leeds this weekend, and their three-day event at London?s Olympia the weekend after.?
There were more than 3,800 products from all over the country entered into the 27 classes in the award scheme, and with 40 golds the South West had more than any other region.
Just 252 of the 3,800 products were deemed worthy of gold medals.