Maine’s Black Dinah Chocolatiers Wins Prestigious Good Food Award
Isle-au-Haut, Maine (PRWEB) January 10, 2015 -- Black Dinah Chocolatiers– the Maine-based makers of signature, adventurously flavored chocolates, truffles, and sipping chocolate – has been honored with the prestigious Good Food Award for its Cassis de Resistance chocolate truffle.
Cassis de Resistance is one of Black Dinah’s 11 rotating seasonal truffles that make up the Farm Market Collection, in which each truffle features an ingredient grown on a Maine farm. The winning truffle is made with piquant blackcurrant berries grown on Isle-au-Haut in Maine, and Venezuelan bittersweet chocolate.
Now in its fifth year, the Good Food Awards are granted to outstanding American food producers and the farmers who provide their ingredients in 11 categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, pickles, preserve, spirits, oil and honey. The Good Food Awards Seal, found on winning products, assures consumers they have found something exceptionally delicious that also supports sustainability and social good.
The Good Food Awards Finalists and Winners are determined using scores from a Blind Tasting as well as a rigorous vetting process, which verifies that winners meet industry-specific environmental and social criteria. In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, Black Dinah Chocolatiers had to meet the following criteria:
• Be free of artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and genetically modified ingredients
• Free of high fructose corn syrup and any vegetable, palm, or hydrogenated fats
• If made with dairy, eggs, or meat, these are locally sourced and/or certified organic; free range, hormone free, and from animals raised using good animal husbandry
• If made with inclusions and flavorings that grow domestically, they are locally sourced wherever possible; traceable; and grown without synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or fertilizer
• If made with inclusions and flavorings that are not grown domestically on a commercial scale, they are farm-direct, certified organic, or Fair Trade certified.
Kate Shaffer said: “We’re over the moon about this award! We’re passionate about creating the best, handcrafted truffles and chocolates we can, and to be recognized with a Good Food Award is both an honor and a tremendous vote of confidence. We also see this as recognition for our dedicated and conscientious local farmers and vendors. Without their ingredients and their own standards of excellence, we would not be receiving this award.”
About Black Dinah Chocolatiers
Kate and Steve Shaffer founded Black Dinah Chocolatiers (http://www.blackdinahchocolatiers.com) in 2007 on Isle-au-Haut, Maine - one of only 15 remaining year-round island communities in the state. All chocolates are hand-made by Kate on the island, where the couple also maintains a seasonal café for the island summer residents and visitors that come from every state in the U.S.
Kate combines exquisitely textured, single-origin chocolates from Venezuela and Peru with the freshest, locally produced cream, butter, herbs, fruits and flowers gathered from a dynamic network of farms and gardens in Maine, resulting in world-class confection that is garnering national accolades and awards.
A self-taught chocolatier, Kate has been recognized by Dessert Professional Magazine as one of 10 top chocolatiers in North America. Her best-selling book, Desserted, features over 45 of her delicious recipes, and describes the realities of living on a remote Maine Island.
About the Good Food Awards
The Good Food Awards celebrate the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsible. The Good Food Awards Seal, found on winning products, assures consumers they have found something exceptionally delicious that also supports sustainability and social good. Seedling Projects 501 (c) 3 organizes the Awards in collaboration with a broad community of food producers, chefs, food writers and passionate food-lovers. It is led by Sarah Weiner and Dominic Phillips, who have united their diverse skills to support the Good Food Movement. Through focused events and strategic models, it engages the public in finding better ways to feed our communities. Find more information at: http://www.seedlingprojects.org.
Mary Beltrante, Beltrante PR, +1 207-517-3333, [email protected]
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