Kaldi's Coffee and Kakao Chocolate Nominated for the Good Food Awards

Oct 27, 2014 at 9:00 am

Beans at Kaldi's Coffee. | Jon Gitchoff

Two local shops, Kaldi's Coffee (700 DeMun Avenue, Clayton; 314-727-9955) and Kakao Chocolate (2301 South Jefferson Avenue; 314-771-2310), have been named finalists for the 2015 Good Food Awards. The awards celebrate socially and environmentally conscious products that are (duh) also delicious. Judges selected 206 finalists from all across the country.

Entrants are judged in five regions (North, South, West, East and Central) in eleven categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, honey, oils, pickles, preserves and spirits. 150 winners will be chosen in January and presented to "local and national buyers in the industry" followed by a Good Food marketplace open to the public.

Kaldi's was nominated in the coffee category for its Ethiopia Dama and Kakao was nominated in the confections category for its gazpacho pates de fruits and Turkish coffee truffle.

The Good Food Awards are all about creating responsible food, as evidenced by their basic criteria:

Tasty

Food is delicious, bringing joy to those who consume it.

Authentic

No artificial ingredients are used.

Food is an expression of tradition and culture.

Seasonality and locality are valued in crafting of food.

Responsible

Respect and fair compensation are core values within the production chain.

Ingredients are grown without synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides and are GMO free.

Growing practices are chosen to promote healthy soil and biodiversity.

Local ingredients are utilized wherever possible.

Water and resource conservation and recycling are practiced.

Transparency and honesty is practiced with consumers.

Direct, face-to-face communication is sought out between growers, food crafters and everyone else in the production chain.

Good animal husbandry is practiced and farm animals can eat and behave according to their natural instincts.