The Great Taste Awards 2021 - The long road ahead

In the early days, I must have had 10-20 ideas a day flooding through my head and to this day I continue to jot them down in my 'big brown journal', not that they stay in there for long. Keeping my creative side at bay is a battle that I'll never win, it's like keeping a secret, but only on these occasions it's more a deprivation, I mean how can anyone keep a tastebud tingling secret from their fellow man, let alone their own tongue.

I'm at my most creative after the sun goes down, and it true to say that ideas come at any time of the day, I mean it's been known, and I'm not ashamed to say at 3 or 4 in the morning I've sat bolt upright in bed with one of those 'lightbulb moments' and had to reach over, half asleep and blurry eyed to scribble down these golden nuggets before my head hits the pillow once again and I'm in the land of nod. Oh but the fun really comes in the morning when I try and decipher what on earth this idea that came to me was.

Anyways, I digress, one day as I flicked through this big old brown notebook, the wrinkled pages adorned with countless doodles, squiggles and of course the recipes for the next 'new Kakawa thing', I thought to myself, would any of these creations be worthy competition and be good enough to stand up to some of the country's finest produce in the Great Taste Awards 2021.

I pondered for days, and of course sought feedback from friends, family and my team on 'my chosen 4' tempering, making endless batches, mainly because I felt my bars didn't have the perfect snap, I didn't polish the mould quite enough so the shine I wanted wasn't there, the flavour profiles just weren't on point, there were many reasons for what in hindsight were perfectly good and tasty bars, and would have done me proud in any setting, I'm hard on myself yes, but why strive for anything less than perfection!

I remember finally plucking up the courage to enter 'my chosen 4' into the Great Taste Awards 2021, and wow was I nervous as I sat there filling in the boxes, making sure my descriptions did the chocolate justice, I mean if you've got any Kakawa bars laying around, just take a chunk and let it melt on the tongue at the same time as writing what every sense feels, it's no easy feat!

Lots of pacing, rereading, questioning myself 'have I described them at their best' and before I knew it the adrenaline rush had consumed me and I'd pressed 'submit'.

The weeks passed, but one morning unexpectedly, 'ping' went my inbox 'samples required' well, I felt like a kid a Christmas, nervous, excited, giddy all at the same time. 

"Time to pull yourself together and get cracking, you've got this" I said to myself. 

I took my time, and over the course of 4 days produced 3 top quality bars of each of "the chosen 4' ready to send in for judging.

The morning came for me to send off my samples to ensure that they arrived on their allotted day, and I found myself double checking to ensure the packaging was just right, the labels straight, the font perfect before boxing them and sending them on their way. 

I must confess, my excitement was at its highest at this point, could this be my moment?

'The chosen 4' have now been judged, and the results are due to be published 21.09.2021, and now I must wait to see if they really can 'cut the mustard'. 

The long road ahead will no doubt be filled with days of more exciting ideas, definitely lots of chocolate making and creating.

Until next time

The Kakawa Artisan Chocolatier