Maine’s Black Dinah Chocolatiers Named Winner in 2016 Good Food Awards

Maine Mint Celebrates a 2016 Good Food Awards Win!

(Portland, Maine – January 16, 2016) Ragged Coast Chocolates (formerly Black Dinah Chocolatiers) – the Maine-­‐based makers of signature, adventurously flavored chocolates, truffles, and sipping chocolate – has been honored, for a second year in a row, with a prestigious Good Food Award for its Maine Mint chocolate truffle.

Made with several different varieties of mint grown on Snell Family Farm in Maine, and Venezuelan bittersweet chocolate, Maine Mint is one of Ragged Coasts’s 11 rotating seasonal truffles that make up the Farm Market Collection, in which each truffle features an ingredient grown on a Maine farm.

Beyond distinguishing themselves by receiving top scores from the 215 judges, Ragged Coast Chocolates passed a rigorous vetting to confirm they met specific Good Food Awards standards around environmentally sound agriculture practices, good animal husbandry, transparency, and responsible relationships throughout the supply chain.

Kate Shaffer, Chocolatier and co-­‐founder of Ragged Coast Chocolates, said: “We are so honored to be one of several Maine companies to win a Good Food Award this year! Creating responsible, delicious, and innovative food is a growing tradition in this state; one that celebrates and is dependent upon every part of the supply and demand chain -­‐ from the farmers and gardeners that grow and raise our ingredients, right on up to the customers that choose to honor these values by what they put on their tables. We are proud to be a part of this dynamic community."

Winners were announced last night at a gala Awards Ceremony at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco, and will be followed by two more days of celebration. Medals were bestowed by renowned chef and activist Alice Waters and organics pioneer Nell Newman. Slow Food Founder, Carlo Petrini, also traveled from Italy to deliver the opening remarks.

On Saturday, January 16, the 30,000 square foot Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason Center will transform into the Good Food Mercantile, one-­‐of-­‐a-­‐kind, intimate ‘un-­‐trade show’ where both winners and members of the Good Food Merchants Guild – exemplary food crafters meeting the same sustainability criteria – exhibit their full line of wares to 400 industry buyers and media. The Good Food Awards Marketplace rounds out the weekend on Sunday, January 17. The general public is invited to meet the winners, taste and buy their winning food and drink.

 

About Ragged Coast Chocolates
Kate and Steve Shaffer founded Ragged Coast Chocolates (formerly Black Dinah Chocolatiers) (www.raggedcoastchocolates.com) in 2007 on Isle au Haut, Maine -­‐ one of only 15 remaining year-­‐round island communities in the state. A self-­‐taught chocolatier, Kate has won many awards and accolades over the years, including a 2015 Good Food Award for her Cassis de Resistance truffle; being named as one of the top 10 chocolatiers in North America by Dessert Professional Magazine; receiving a Best Cookbooks of the Year Award by Food & Wine Books; named Maine’s Best Chocolate in Down East Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards; winning the Bronze in the Cookbooks Awards by Independent Publisher; listed as a Home-­‐Based Business Champion by Small Business Administration; and being named a Finalist in the Foreword Book of the Year Awards by Foreword Reviews.

Kate’s talents and chocolates have also been recognized and praised in national media including in three separate issues of Martha Stewart Living, Bloomberg, Gourmet Magazine, The Washington Post, Bon Appetite and The Boston Globe.

As well as being a Chocolatier, Kate is also the author of the cookbook Desserted, which features over 45 of her delicious recipes, and describes the realities of living on a remote Maine Island.

About the Good Food Awards
The Good Food Awards celebrate the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsible. The Good Food Awards Seal, found on winning products, assures consumers they have found something exceptionally delicious that also supports sustainability and social good. Seedling Projects 501 (c) 3 organizes the Awards in collaboration with a broad community of food producers, chefs, food writers and passionate food-­‐lovers. It is led by Sarah Weiner and Dominic Phillips, who have united their diverse skills to support the Good Food Movement. Through focused events and strategic models, it engages the public in finding better ways to feed our communities. Find more information at: www.seedlingprojects.org.


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