Asia-Pacific Round Results of the 2018 International Chocolate Awards
DiscoverChoc
Massaging the awards listing from the ICA website remains an exceedingly tedious process and this one was made more difficult (interesting?) because some of the names are in non-Roman scripts. There were also some potential duplicate listings, requiring clarification. So – consider these numbers preliminary. Links to stories about my analysis of other rounds are at the bottom of the story.
Distribution of Entries
The official number of entries is exactly 700 from more than 100 companies representing 16 countries.
Distribution of Awards by Type
A total of ~~190~~ 187 regular awards (there were three duplicate awards published because of a bug in the ICA system) across 30 categories and 14 special awards across 10 special categories (Best in Competition, National, Special, and MMM) were given.
Using the published official number of entries (700), awards were given to ~30.14% of all entries when both regular and special awards are considered (~~214~~ 211, in which some entries receive 2 or more awards) and to ~26.71% of entries when only the regular awards are concerned.
> The following percentages are calculated based on the number of regular awards given.
- 22 regular golds (~11.76% of all regular awards) were given.
- 87 regular silvers (~46.52% of all regular awards) were given.
- 83 regular bronzes (~44.38% of all regular awards) were given.
Distribution of Awards by Country
The countries with the most awards were:
- Japan (80, ~37.91% of all awards given)
- Taiwan (73, ~34.59% of all awards given)
- Australia (11, ~5.21% of all awards given)
- New Zealand (10, ~4.73% of all awards given)
Distribution of Awards by Bean Origin
Among the winning entries that listed origins (106 of 214, including duplicates among regular and special awards), a total of 29 different origins were identified.
> It's also the first time in a competition not held in or for an origin (e.g., Peru and Central America) where the influence of regionality on selection of origin may have come into play with Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines accounting for 41 of the 106 entries listing origins.
As with the European Bean to Bar competition where Nicaragua dominated among bean origins because of one maker, Friis-Holm, we can infer one reason Taiwan was the most popular bean origin was due to one maker: Fu Wan.
The most popular origins were:
- Taiwan (19 awards)
- Peru (18 awards)
- Vietnam (16 awards)
- Madagascar, Philippines (6 awards each)
Distribution of Awards to Winning Companies
> One of the most interesting things about this distribution is the absence of Koyama from the results, which I can only assume means they did not enter the competition given their omnipresence among winners from the region in past years' competitions.
- Fu Wan Chocolate, Taiwan (16)
- Chocolatier Palet d’Or, Japan (12)
- Musée du Chocolat Théobroma, Japan (10)
- Cacaotier Gokan, Japan; Chuang Chocolate, Taiwan; and Ishiya, Japan (8 each)
There are many small tweaks to make to the data and I am hoping the organizers will help me with this over the next short while. There are at least two more competitions to go in the 2018 series of the ICAs and I still have to process the competitions from earlier in 2018. Across two competitions (Americas and Asia-Pacific) approximately 530 awards of all types were given to approximately 1,500 entries entered by over 160 companies from more than 25 countries.
> Your thoughts on this round?
My story on the European Bean to Bar competition.
My story on the Americas Round competition.
