The praline of the Hungarian chocolate manufactory received an Oscar of gastronomy

The pumpkin seed-blueberry praline created by Sweetic’s chocolate master, Judit Zala, won the Academy of Chocolate Awards 2020 and then won two acclaimed gold stars at the Great Taste Awards, also known as the Gastronomy Oscars. This year is also very exciting for the Hungarian handcrafted chocolate manufactory because they opened their first store in Budapest, Sweetic Buda, which is a harmonious marriage of a chocolate bar and speciality café.

The praline of the Sweetic chocolate manufactory in Szigetszentmiklós recently received special awards, writes 24. Inside the brightly glittering bonbon are two types of fillings. The refreshing, slightly sweeter blueberries harmonise very well with the layer of high-quality pumpkin seed cream, and all this has been filled into a wafer-thin dark chocolate wrap that suits the taste. The playful green, wonderfully glittering decoration of the surface of the bonbon also evokes the world of taste.

Two more of Sweetic’s creations have also been successful at international gastronomic competitions: at the Great Taste Awards, they received a gold star with a crispy hazelnut croissant filled with pecan pralines in a milk chocolate casing. And the Academy of Chocolate Awards recognised a special prize for the praline, called CS 4970 in honour of Camino Steve. The latter was given a shape reminiscent of the mountains he climbed. The black dots and gold decoration appearing in white symbolise the wonderful apricot bean insert inside the bonbon. To this was added another layer of crispy hazelnut praline, and it was all hidden in milk chocolate.

This is not the first time we have heard of Sweetic: in the last 6 years, they have returned home with a total of 30 prizes from 3 different world competitions. Last year, they were among the world’s leading chocolate makers with Judit Zala’s combination of red fruit-violet pistachios in a Venezuelan dark chocolate casing winning three gold stars at the Great Taste Awards. Hungarian pralines have never received such recognition before, and in 2019, only Sweetic received this recognition in this category, so they became world champions.

The professional jury of the Great Taste Awards, the world’s largest and most rigorous food tasting competition, is made up of 400 independent experts in the field of gastronomy: renowned gastrocritics, Michelin-star chefs, well-known department stores (Harrods, Selfridges, Food & Masons, Harvey Nicols) consisting of their purchasing directors, who tasted about 12,777 product samples between February and July.

The tasting process took more than a thousand hours. For the sake of objectivity, the evaluation was carried out by “blind tasting”, during which only the taste composition of the unpackaged products, the harmony of the flavours found in the product, and the appearance of the food were examined. This competition has been considered the Gastronomic Oscars.

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From November 2020, Sweetic’s world-famous pralines will also be available in Budapest. The brand store of the chocolate manufactory is also a speciality café, which was created as a result of the merger with Cafe Marcello.

Due to our awards, we have received a lot of attention in recent years, so we have often been asked why our products are not yet available in full range in Budapest. We really wanted to have a place where they could find everything in one place that was connected to us. This dream of ours has now come true; moreover, in one of the most beautiful parts of Budapest, at 12 Frankel Leo Street. There are currently more than 100 types of chocolates available in the store, including all of our award-winning bonbons, cake pops, dragees, hot chocolate, and creamy caramels,

said chocolate master Judit Zala.

In addition to the “chocolate bar”, Sweetic Buda is also about the speciality coffee experience, which, when you enter the store, immediately reveals the special coffee roasting machine in the middle, as well as the unmistakable scent.

In the capital, we can only taste locally roasted coffee specialities from El Salvador, which is also a fair trade product, in the purchase of which special care was taken to get the coffee beans directly from the producers. 

With the appearance of Sweetic, the best-quality chocolate and coffee shop in Buda has opened in the second district, which fits the increasingly demanding offer of Frankel Leo Street, which will be one of the most significant streets in the new Margit cultural district next year.

Source: 24.hu