Hungary’s best szaloncukor revealed

Hungary’s traditional Christmas candy comes in many different flavours, coatings, textures, and so on. If you are feeling puzzled about which ones to try this year, the results of the Szaloncukor of the Year competition 2020 are here to give you some ideas.

’Szaloncukor’ is Hungary’s traditional Christmas candy, without which the holiday season cannot be complete. Wrapped in festive paper, it looks like a smaller version of a Christmas cracker. The filling of a szaloncukor can be chocolate, fruit, or nut flavoured cream, jelly, mousse, marzipan, and it is almost always covered in chocolate. The varieties really are endless.

Due to the huge variety of flavours, it can be a struggle to find the perfect one for the holidays, but this year, organisers of the Szaloncukor of the Year competition are providing us with some help.

The organisers of the Szaloncukor of the Year competition invited all Hungarian manufacturers to provide equal opportunity to both bigger and smaller, as well as craft producers. When establishing the categories, they also kept in mind those with food intolerances, those who are on a budget, kids, and those who are looking for the newest tastes, Origo reports.

Results

The absolute winner of the Szaloncukor of the Year competition was the salted caramel szaloncukor from Demeter Chocolate.

The coconut cream szaloncukor from the Craft Pastry Shop of Gyula finished in the second place, and the pistachio cream szaloncukor of Stühmer was awarded the third place.

The best craft szaloncukor is the hazelnut nougat-milk chocolate szaloncukor from the Craft Pastry Shop of Gyula.

Demeter Chocolate’s Irsai Olivér grape pálinka flavoured szaloncukor – which was already an award-winning candy, not just in Hungary – came in at the second place, and the salted pumpkin seed-white chocolate truffle szaloncukor from Sulyán Confectionery became the third.

The almond-prune-walnut and dark chocolate szaloncukor of Sulyán Confectionery – which does not contain any sweetener either – earned the Sugar-free Szaloncukor of the Year title.

The second place in this category went to the hazelnut cream-milk chocolate szaloncukor of Stühmer, and the third place was awarded to the almond-chocolate szaloncukor of Tesco’s Finest line.

The best lactose-free szaloncukor of 2020 is Damniczki Confectionery’s red wine and raspberry flavoured szaloncukor – made with Merlot from Mészáros Pál Winery, Szekszárd.

The second place was earned by Lissé’s Fitt rum-cocoa flavoured szaloncukor, and the third by Chocco Garden’s banana mousse szaloncukor. The first two from this category are also vegan.

The Best Gluten-free Szaloncukor of the Year title went to the orange flavoured szaloncukor coated with Belgian dark chocolate from Upper Bars. 

The second-best is Majomkenyér’s peanut butter szaloncukor, which is sweetened with coconut flower sugar and rice syrup, and the third-best is the Paleobon szaloncukor from Szerencsi.

Within the cheaper category (under 499 Forint / 100 g) the caramel cream szaloncukor from Tesco won. The second best is the rum-cocoa szaloncukor from Dolcetta, the third-best is Auchan’s fudge szaloncukor.

The best jelly szaloncukor is Choco Garden’s cherry flavoured one.

The best new flavour is the coconut-whole nut szaloncukor from Piros Mogyorós, and the children’s favourite is Tesco’s crunchy banana and raspberry-pop rocks candy flavours.

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Source: Origo