Some more good news this week. Solkiki Chocolatemaker of Sherborne raise the bar with 11 new awards for 6 new bars at the British arm of the International Chocolate Awards, crafting the highest scoring bar in the entire competition with respect for their ingredients and the farmers who produce them.
The self-taught chocolatemaker duo Iris and Bob are certified professional tasters with the world’s leading program offered by the International Institute of Cacao and Chocolate Tasting (IICCT).
Bob enthuses, “Insatiable and full of beans, we are always assessing new origins, new ingredients, equipment and techniques. We like to choose new recipes to showcase every year, as our very large core range of over 60 bars demonstrates! 
We are honoured and proud to earn 3 Golds, 2 Silvers and a Bronze for Britain this year, in addition to 5 special accolades including British Chocolatemaker 2025, Direct-Trade, Organic and Gastro.”
Winners include:
Wild Bolivian Beniano dark milk 61%, BRITISH GOLD 2025 (Bolivian)
Malagos Stroopwafel 60% (Filipino)
Salted Esmeraldas 64% (Ecuadorian)
Bourbon Vanilla Gold (Alt. White Chocolate BRITISH GOLD 2025) (Peruvian)
Tahitian Vanilla Gold (Alt. White Chocolate BRITISH SILVER 2025) (Peruvian)
He continues, “Since the cocoa crisis in early 2024, we have seen prices for cocoa butter increase sharply. Vanilla has been increasing for years already (though recorrecting slightly), and we are in a world where we notice other people working with chocolate moving away from cocoa butter and vanilla. We don’t want to do that! We want to continue working with these amazing products and not compromise on quality. There is such a range of flavour available in cocoa butter and vanilla too, and we really enjoy the privilege of continuing to explore those profiles.”
Their final winner this year, taking the medal count to over 240 since 2008 is: Pineapple Stroopwafel (Alt. White Chocolate – inclusion – BRITISH GOLD 2025 / GASTRO SPECIAL). “We wanted to create a really fun dessert chocolate, a gourmand experience for the weary epicurean. Pineapple plays nicely with the natural irrepressible pineapple dimension of our gorgeous cocoa butter, and stroopwafel delivers dessert with caramel and waffle textures and notes.”
Unable to find acceptable options, Iris began making chocolate from base ingredients in January 2008. She originally sold spare chocolate just to cover her costs! Solkiki has been making chocolate ever since, still selling what they don’t eat themselves to cover costs. Since 2015, Solkiki has provided super fine, natural, and organic cacao beans, cacao butter, and cacao powder to other makers; they also provide ingredients and couverture to Michelin kitchens and chocolatiers around the world. All Solkiki ingredients are directly traded with farmers and imported straight from the origin. This means Solkiki has access to the very best ingredients while also rewarding the right people.
“We take enjoyment exploring and pushing boundaries in fine chocolate, we typically only submit new bars every year to the awards and we are always assessing cacao, derivatives and other ingredients.” says Bob. “It’s very special to create something and have a team of trained, highly experienced judges single out our products and award them. We are here to delight people. Delighting people is a core motivator, so the awards are serious compliments. Having done the excellent IICCT training ourselves, we know how critical and discerning these judges are. If anyone is seriously thinking about pursuing chocolate we can highly recommend the training; you’ll learn a lot and eat some wonderful chocolate. This is why the ICA are the best, most meaningful awards for anyone in chocolate to win.”
Bob concluded with an insight on daily life at Solkiki! “Just this week we’ve paid one of our long term farmers 40% higher than usual to provide for us – they’ve had a shocking harvest as the cocoa crisis continues to bite. We’ve shared news of our Gold win with a Bolivian family of farmers who harvest prize-winning cacao via canoe! We’re assessing cacao from a new team in India, juggling production batches, running an experiment on a new recipe and tasting a lot of our own work. A standard week at Solkiki!”
To find out more about them, visit Solkiki on their website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
