The apprentice season is about to start in the UK, quite similar to the US but with Alan Sugar instead of Donald Trump. This year, one of the tasks which will be aired in a couple of weeks (and no we won't tell you who won), involved chocolate and we were asked to help one of the teams.Great, we thought, as this was one of our favourite tv program.Unfortunatelty it was made clear to us that any mention of cocoa content or origin was far too esoteric for the average TV main stream viewers. They would go only as far as milk/dark/white/cheap/premium. Needless to say it was somewhat frustrating and made me wonder: were the producers just a bit limited? or is the average prime time TV viewer so dull?Still it was a lot of fun to do but it could have been a little more... aspirational and inspirational.

I am probably going to get in trouble again for this but i could not resist...For those planning to enter the Academy of chocolate awards 2010, here's our guide to winning:1. Enter all your products, every single one of them, in all possible categories.2. Enter any product that has previously won award every year. Why quit when you are winning?3. Make special batch with the most expensive couverture and the shortest shelf life; you don't actually need to sell these exact products. No one will know.4. Use chocolate from a manufacturer sponsoring the organisers. Amedei would be a good choice5. Become a member of the Academy and make sure your PR helps organise the awards6. If this fails, a special award, mysteriously not based on any scores, can always be created for you7. If all fails, form your own chocolate critic group with your friends and suppliers and create your own awards to give to each other!This is of course a joke, isn't it?

I saw this article on Cadbury and it made me cringe.Are customers really so silly that they need this? or is this another manifestation of the nanny state?Of course allergies are very serious but still... What next? Warning on chocolate contains...cocoa?Milk in chocolates warningBritain's most famous milk chocolate maker has decided to warn milk chocolate lovers that Britain's most famous milk chocolate contains - milk.The latest Cadbury Dairy Milk wrappers feature a logo showing a glass and a half of milk being poured into a chocolate chunk, put milk first in a list of ingredients and explains that there is "The equivalent of three quarters of a pint of milk of fresh liquid milk in every half pound of milk chocolate".But Cadbury says it is also necessary to print warnings in capital letters in yellow boxes saying "CONTAINS: MILK" in case people who are allergic to milk do not realise that there is milk in Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.

Hi everyone,First blog and a hot potato one!!!Some of you, chocolatiers in the US, may be considering entering the above awards in the UK.Well, we have participated successfully to them for the last 3 years but this yearmade the unpopular decision not to as we feel that the Academy has to address a number of issuesto run these awards professionally.If you want to read more, check out our reasons and suggestions athttp://www.artisanduchocolat.com/ArtisanduChocolatSite/cm/Plainchocolateblog.htmOr read belowGerard Coleman,DirectorArtisan du chocolat This year we are not participating to the annual Chocolate Academy Awards. This may be an unpopular decision and a mildly commercially suicidal one but we make chocolates, not politics. And politics has come in the way of celebrating fine chocolate. The Academy has done much to raise the profile of fine chocolate in the UK but needs now to seriously address several issues if it is to represent this growing industry professionally.The Academy membership should be open and enlarged in order to remain impartial and to limit the potential conflicts of interest. We would like to call for an independent body with no commercial interest in chocolate to be formed and oversee the organisation of the awards.In recent years, most of the award winners were also members of the Academy. This could raise question of personal preferment and partiality. While we hope this is not the case, it is important that the Academy substantiates its position by putting in place the right people and processes to ensure that the Awards are truly representative of the industry as a whole and are truly impartial. For example, is it acceptable that one of the key organisers of the awards is also be the PR person of some of the brands participating?Clarity and transparency need to be achieved in all stages of the awards from sample collection (to avoid "special" batches being created only for the awards), to aggregating scores into awards, to deciding for awards not based on scores and creating new awards.In addition we think fewer awards would be beneficial to avoid dilution of their impact and confusion. Last year more than 100 awards were given.How many do you remember? There should be fewer awards categories, fewer awards given in each category and a smaller geographic spread of the participants. Wouldn't it be better to judge UK products perfectly rather than take on the world?Finally, we encourage the Academy in continuing to enforce clear guidelines as how the awards should be referred to by the winning brands. Should we mention some overjoyed winners in the past who extended their awards to "World awards" or did not to mention what their awards was for?Overall we cannot continue to participate until the Academy addresses the above issues professionally. We know there are several other chocolatiers who share our point of view but prefer to remain silent for commercial reasons. We prefer to say exactly what we think regardless of commercial and political caution. That's what this plain chocolate blog is about.