The World’s Best Chocolate Spirit – According to the International Wine & Spirit Competition

The results of this year’s International Wine and Spirits Competition were bathed in chocolate.

For the spirits category, more than 100 international judges gathered in London to taste more than 400 spirits. The liqueur category was impressive overall this year, but “chocolate liqueurs were the most impressive with a wide range of chocolate expressions,” the IWSC judges noted in a statement.

Some industry analysts have predicted significant growth in flavored spirits this decade, and the IWSC results appear to support that prediction. The number of liqueurs entered in the competition increased from previous years, as did the quality, particularly for chocolate spirits, judges said.

David T. Smith, head judge of the Liqueur Awards, told me that the chocolate liqueur category has become more complex than some consumers thought. “In recent years, we’ve seen brands embrace a wide variety of styles, from dry, unsweetened varieties to indulgent white chocolate,” he said. “We’ve also seen producers get creative by combining them with other popular flavors like coconut and mint.”

The best chocolate liqueur was won by two very different products, which received 98 points from the judges. These were Mozart Coconut Chocolate Liqueur from the Mozart Distillery in Austria and Dutch Cocoa Liqueur from the Royal De Kuyper Distillery in the Netherlands.

Judges described Mozart Coconut Chocolate Liqueur as “an utterly decadent offering with a milky white chocolate profile. The palate has a melody of flavors, with well-defined notes of vanilla cream, coconut and nutmeg. It’s beautifully balanced and indulgent.”

Judges praised the Dutch Cocoa Liqueur for its “inviting nose with layers of coconut, bitter chocolate and herbal aromas, leading to a smooth and voluptuous palate.” The judges added: “The cocoa notes gain intensity from the first sip, ending in a long and complex crescendo.”

Mozart Distillery won medals for six other chocolate liqueurs, including a chocolate cream liqueur, a coffee and chocolate liqueur, and a strawberry and chocolate liqueur, which together make Mozart a distillery run by Willy Wonka.

But there was plenty of company during the competition.

“The chocolate liqueurs were so well received this year that every entrant received a medal,” Kristen Dougall, the competition’s marketing manager, told me. “This is a remarkable achievement for a category, as the IWSC prides itself on being the most rigorous beverage competition in the world, where a medal is a true seal of approval from our expert judges.”

The IWSC was launched in 1969 and is a well-respected competition, so it means a lot to flavored spirits in general and chocolate spirits in particular to get the competition’s seal of approval. Generally speaking, I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate spirits of any kind. But I’ve noticed a trend toward higher-quality chocolate-flavored products myself, and when you get a good pour of chocolate, it can be hard to beat. It’s easy to dismiss these spirits as crowd-pleasers for sweet tooths or fun dessert offerings, but the best chocolate spirits are that and so much more.

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