Business

Van's Chocolates helps energy bar win top prize

By News release, Published: June 13, 2013

Van's Chocolates of Hendersonville is a key ingredient of an energy bar that recently won the 2013 Flavor of Georgia food products contest in the Snack Foods Category.

The Burke/Georgia Bar uses Byne Blueberry Farm's blueberries on a dark chocolate base and drizzled with chocolate on top. For the Burke/Georgia Bar, Byne's organic blueberries are dehydrated and then incorporated with grains and nuts into a delicious healthy snack bar.

The bars are shipped to Van's Chocolates on Chadwick Avenue where they are enhanced with Van's all-natural, preservative-free, luscious dark chocolate and caramel. Van's covers the bars in three flavors: caramel and chocolate, dark chocolate, and caramel and chocolate with sea salt.
"Last year our chocolate helped make Byne Farm a finalist in the Flavor of Georgia contest with the Dark-Chocolate Covered Blueberries," said Bryan Vanderlois, of Van's Chocolates. "Sure enough, Dick and Linda Byne made news with an award-winning chocolate-based item again this year. We're proud that Van's quality handmade chocolate makes them a winner."
Byne Blueberry Farm and other finalists were chosen from more than 100 entries in eight categories during the Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest in March. The contest is hosted annually by the University of Georgia as part of the Governor's Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week.
Van's Chocolates, owned and run by the Vanderlois family, has been a small-batch, family-owned business specializing in handmade, preservative-free chocolates since 1968. Southern Living magazine named Van's one of the best chocolate shops in the South.
Van's Chocolates is located at 202 Chadwick Avenue. For more information, visit the website at www.vanschocolates.com or phone Peg or Bryan Vanderlois at 828-697-2120.