Ontario town's chocolate is deemed best in the world

CTV National News: Ottawa chocolatiers win award A small chocolate maker outside Ottawa has emerged as the world's best. Richard Madan has a look inside Hummingbird Chocolate.

This year's winner of a prestigious global chocolate award had its humble beginning from the basement of an Ottawa-area home.

The Hispaniola chocolate bar by Almonte, Ont.-based Hummingbird Chocolate Maker took the 2016 Golden Bean prize at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in London.

Hummingbird founder Erica Gilmour said she had almost forgotten that the Golden Bean prize was up for grabs when she learned Hispaniola had won the title.

"We were very excited and surprised because this was the first time we entered this awards competition," Gilmour told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Gilmour learned that the Hispaniola bar had won a gold award in the "Dark, Bean to Bar under 70%" category in May. Hummingbird also won three silvers and two bronze in the awards.

But the academy's top prize was not announced until a gala awards ceremony this past weekend.

"We had kind of forgotten that there was this top award that they still had to give out," Gilmour said.

Hummingbird is a "beans to bar" chocolate maker, meaning the chocolate is made from scratch.

Gilmour said the bean used in the Hispaniola bar, which is imported from a cacao farm in the northern Dominican Republic, has a natural fruity quality with a bit of a cherry note to it.

"It really evolves as you taste it," she said. "It really is a lot like wine tasting, when you're tasting fine chocolate."

The only other ingredients in the Hispaniola are organic cane sugar and "a tiny bit" of cocoa butter.

She said the bar is made by hand, which allows the makers to tease out the flavours of the cacao beans.

The Hispaniola retails for $6.50 for a 50-gram bar.

Chocolate-makers launch business from basement

Gilmour said she got into the chocolate-making trade in "a very roundabout way."

She and her husband Drew met as international development workers in Afghanistan. The two had spent much of their careers working with farmers in developing countries, which is where they began to learn about the cacao industry and how chocolate is made.

"We were looking for a change in lifestyle where we could spend a little more time at home," Gilmour said. "Drew pointed out how much I love to eat chocolate, and suggested I might like to make chocolate."

After experimenting in their basement for about a year-and-a-half, Gilmour said the couple started selling the chocolate at local farmers' markets.

Eventually, the couple moved the chocolate production to a 2,500-square-foot factory in Almonte, where they also run a retail operation.

Gilmour said while Hummingbird chocolate is primarily sold in the Ottawa area, they have plans to expand sales throughout Ontario in the fall.

Ethically sourcing beans from around the globe

The Gilmours have sourced cacao beans from Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Vietnam, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Part of their business model is to pay higher than fair trade prices for the cacao beans and to ensure the product is grown sustainably and ethically farmed.

"The average age of a cacao farmer is around 50 years old, and their children are not getting into the business because they can't make a living out of it," Gilmour said, adding: "I think we're all going to have to pay more (for chocolate) in the future."

While the couple currently source cacao beans alongside other craft chocolate-makers, they hope to soon travel to cacao farms around the globe to source new beans.

"That's definitely the next stage," Gilmour said.

Hummingbird is also preparing for an increase in demand as the company expands and more Canadians learn about the world-class chocolate.

"I just hope people give it try and fall in love with craft chocolate the way that we have," Gilmour said. "I think once you've tasted it, it's hard to go back."