Chocolate Dreams 2024 Finalists Announced
Imaginations have run wild among nine budding chocolatiers selected by the New Zealand public as finalists in the Wellington Chocolate Factory’s Chocolate Dreams 2024 competition.
Creations including Cashew Later, Gingerberry Explosion, Carnival, Afternoon Tea and The Zest Chocolate Ever! reached the next stage of judging after thousands of public votes selected the top three entries in the Junior, Teen and Open categories.
The Chocolate Dreams 2024 finalists are:
Junior Category (5 – 12 years)
- Cashew Later (cashews, sea salt and milk chocolate) – Amelia Brennan
- Gingerberry Explosion (strawberries, gingerbread and milk chocolate) – Neveah Wendt
- Pavluva (kiwi, strawberries, meringue) – Maddie Mackie
Teen Category (13 – 17 years old)
- Carnival (salted caramel fudge, sweet popcorn, rainbow sprinkles) – Amelia Simpson
- Honeycomb (candied lemon, honeycomb) – Emily Batty
- Dark Chocolate Bliss Trio (dark chocolate, almonds, tangy berries) – Cayden Pistorious
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Open category (18 years and over)
- Afternoon Tea (Early Grey Tea, Shortbread Pieces) – Ezra Whittaker
- Spiced Apricot (apricot jam, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, milk chocolate) – Hannah Pett
- The best lemon peel chocolate ever! (candied lemon peel, lemon candy, milk chocolate) – Kevin Stevens.
Gabe Davidson, co-founder of Wellington Chocolate Factory, said he was impressed by the creativity and imagination of each of this year’s finalists.
“We had some delicious flavour ideas, especially in our Junior category, which is very impressive. There are a lot of budding young foodies in Aotearoa! In our Teen and Open categories, some flavours even surprised our chocolate experts. We’re going to have a great time tasting these bars over the next few days,” he said.
Each finalist’s bar will be made for judging at WCF on 29 August 2024. The judging panel includes Gabe Davidson and Tania Rodger (CEO of Wētā Workshop), Lucy Corry (writer, chef and journalist) and Kalliana Kong (foodie and founder of Instagram account Wellingnoms).
Gabe Davidson says they will evaluate each finalist’s bar against several categories.
“We want to see how the flavors work together: How does it taste and look? How does the packaging of the bar work with the flavor? Will people buy it? It’s the same process we go through when we develop a new bar to sell at WCF to make sure it ticks all the boxes, and we want to put all of our finalists through their paces,” he says.
There will be one winner per category, from which the overall winner will be crowned. Each category winner will win two return flights to Wellington, one night’s accommodation, tickets to experiences at WCF, Weta, Zealandia, Cable Car and Space Place for two people and a year’s supply of WCF chocolate. The overall winner will become Willy Wonka for a day and hand-make 50 of their bars to take home, with an additional 450 bars of the winning flavour sold at WCF.
Chocolate Dreams 2024 has been made possible with the generous support of Wētā Workshop, Wellington Cable Car, Zealandia and Space Place. For more information, visit chocolatedreams.co.nz.
About Wellington Chocolate Factory
Small but mighty, Wellington Chocolate Factory, with a dream to create a better world, produces the world’s highest quality ethical chocolate that will take you on a taste adventure from the first bite. Working to ensure a kinder future for those who grow their incredible cocoa beans, they are New Zealand’s first bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer. Based in Eva Street Wellington, they offer chocolatey tours and the chance to watch the bean-to-bar magic happen in their delightful factory. For more information, visit www.wcf.co.nz
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