It’s a simple little treat, really.
A hint of red in the chocolate on the outside, a flourish on the top. Inside, a raspberry coulis with a white ganache.
But on Oct. 14 this unassuming dessert – the “Raspberry Swirl” – received a bronze medal from the International Chocolate Awards in their world finals.
“I’m still pinching myself,” said Josie Hladki, the chocolate’s creator and the owner of Inspiration Chocolates in Athabasca. “This is my first world bronze.”
For the past few years, Hladki has been making a name for herself on the Canadian scene, winning bronze medals for her “Monkey’s Lunch” and “Maple Walnut Supreme” chocolates.
This year, she entered the Raspberry Swirl in the category “Ganaches or truffles using mixed dark/milk/white for coating and fillings.” After taking home a bronze in the Canadian leg of the International Chocolate Awards, she found herself up against competition from places like Germany, Japan and Italy at the worlds.
“I’ve opened a few eyes to where is Athabasca,” she said. “They’re used to Vancouver or Toronto or Calgary or Edmonton – and then they go, where is Athabasca? Maybe that’s a good thing for Athabasca.”
Hladki said she found out that Raspberry Swirl had won the Canadian competition Sept. 26 at 5 p.m.
She then had until Sept. 29 to handmake, package and send another batch of the prize chocolates to London, U.K. She said she had a couple of late nights cleaning and painting molds, melting chocolates and making ganache.
She also said packaging alone took her two hours, trying to get the chocolates into a box so that they are in perfect condition on arrival despite a perhaps rocky trip overseas.
“They made it just that day exactly,” she said. “I sent my chocolates to the worlds last year – my Maple Walnut Supreme – and they didn’t make it there. They were on the truck, and they kept driving around. They didn’t get delivered. I missed the competition.”
She said she entered the Raspberry Swirl into the Canadian competition last year as well, and although it was a runner up, it did not win a medal.
This year, she changed the mold and added a bit of red to the chocolate on the outside.
“It tastes so fresh,” she said. “It wasn’t too sweet, and when you eat it, it tasted like a mouthful of fresh raspberries. My husband’s favourite."
She said next year, she would be aiming for the top.
“Then, I beat myself up and say, I should have got a silver,” she said.
The Raspberry Swirl is the is the culmination of years of learning, testing and elbow grease.
Originally from Calgary, Hladki moved to Athabasca while she was working in the oil industry, as a geologist and engineering technologist.
Finding inspiration in Jacques “Mr. Chocolate” Torres in 2004, she said she decided to take four, two-hour night classes about chocolate-making at NAIT. She said because internet was slow at her Island Lake residence, she would start downloading videos and pictures about chocolate-making in the night for the next day.
“He’s my mentor,” she said. “He was making chocolate-this and chocolate-that. I watched the episodes three or four times, because they would be reruns. I would be up until three and four every night watching YouTube … I’d watch somebody pour a mold 20 times over. Because I was self-taught – you had to see exactly what they’re doing, and I’d be looking to see what kind of stuff they had in their kitchen.”
She said that ten years after she began, she took an online course for three months on chocolate-making.
“I believe that we never stop learning,” she said. “I learned a lot – I mean, I don’t know it all. I’m still learning.”
