The “best alfajor in the world” is made of liqueur and Mar del Plata chocolate mousse, according to what the experts defined this Saturday, when carrying out a blind tasting within the framework of the First Alfajor World Championship which took place in downtown Buenos Aires and in which 150 producers from Argentina and the world participated with 350 samples of alfajores.
The winning company was miracles from heaven. “It’s 22 years of work, there’s a lot behind this, for me it’s the reward for a lot of effort, I’m happy,” said the winner Fabiana Ocaranza to Télam, who received the recognition with emotion.
“This alfajor has two cookies, it has 50 grams of filling, which makes it something different, and we control the right point of balance on the palate so that it is not cloying, it is totally handmade,” he added.
“When I saw that my alfajor was there I couldn’t believe it, it was worth the effort, it is a recipe that we have had for a long time”Fabiana Ocaranza
Fabiana had recognized her alfajor -which had no wrapper- at the last tasting table of the pre-selected alfajores, which was open to the public and took place this Saturday after noon.
“When I saw that my alfajor was there, I couldn’t believe it, it was worth the effort, it’s a recipe we’ve had for a long time,” she said happily, adding that she found out about the World Cup from her clients who are “fans of the brand for many years. years” and motivated her to sign up.
the championship
The Championship was held during the Argentine Alfajor Fair which began on August 1 and ended this Saturday on the first floor of the Central Gallery located on Av. Corrientes and Florida, which was attended by around 12,000 people with free admission, as confirmed to Télam from the organization headed by Juan Sardella and Juan Jose Soria.
“The fair and the championship worked very well and exceeded our expectations,” Sardella told Télam.
“The score of the alfajor was 8.18 out of 10, this alfajor won for its organoleptic characteristics, for a very moist dough, for a filling with its fair humidity and a cover that was also correct, although there was a lot of parity,” the chef told Télam executive Cristian Ponce de León, one of the presidents of the jury.
For her part, the producer of the alfajorera company Cielos Pampeanos and also president of the jury, Silvia Chus, expressed at the event: “The alfajor in Argentina is a feelingWhen you take an alfajor to any part of the world, you are taking part of our culture and history”.
The winner Ocaranza agreed with Chus and told Télam that “hopefully next year the championship will be held in La Rural so that we are increasingly more participants in the country.”
in the championship 48 prizes were also awarded in the categories Best Dark Chocolate, Best White Chocolate, Best Dulce de Leche, Best Fruit Filling, Best Simple Alfajor, Best Triple Alfajor, Best Biscuit, Best Confectionery Alfajor, Best Traditional Flavor, Best Exotic Flavor, Best Texture, Best Aroma to Alfajor, Best Packaging, Best Healthy Alfajor and Best Cornstarch Alfajor.
The experts they had to choose between 350 samples that were sent by 150 large, medium and small, industrial and artisanal producers, who were measured “on equal terms”, and the winners of each category competed to be the “best alfajor in the world 2022”.
To do so, the jury broke down numerically through scores the 100% sensory and non-aesthetic appreciations on more than 30 points of each alfajor from which they analyzed ingredients, filling, biscuit and coverage.
They evaluated the external appearance, then the biscuit-filling relationship, homogeneity of the filling, thickness of the coverage, firmness, chewiness, taste and smell evaluation, complexity and balance of each one.
70% of the alfajores that participated were handmade.
The registered national producers were from the large alfajores centers such as the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santa Fe, among others, but also from Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, which were mostly It is about Argentines who emigrated and who “miss the alfajor and end up producing it themselves in those countries,” the technical director of the championship, Juan José Soria, explained to Télam.
During the last days of the fair, while the 12 members of the jury carried out the blind tasting with sensory analysis techniques in a “dark room”, the public toured the event to buy at the various stands handmade, premium and gourmet alfajores.
“I learned about the fair through social networks, I bought alfajores with nutella and pistachio fillings, which are the best, there are also others with beer and liquor flavors, the proposal is very good,” Nicolás Bermúdez, a gastronomy student from San Francisco, told Télam. Fernando, while waiting in line to buy alfajores from “La Vaca Lechera de San Telmo”.
The public also interacted with the jury, talked and took photos with the alfajores world cup poster in the background throughout the week.
Gabriela Ojeda, from Tristán Suárez, found out about the fair on Facebook and visited it with her daughter and friends. “We love alfajores, we came to spend a nice morning and we tried very good alfajores”said Ojeda, between laughs and mate in hand.
Merchants of the stands told Télam that the public “doubled” every day of the fair and was made up of Argentines, especially locals who came to taste it during their work break, and also by tourists from Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, among others.
In addition to Chus and Ponce de León, the food journalist Carolina Balverdi also made up the jury; and alfajores influencers Hernán Montes, Juan Manuel Logiacco, Mariano Lopez and Facundo Calabró; chefs Lucas Fuente, Pablo Remaggi; the enterprising pastry chef Agustina Laporte, and two members of the public, Diego Parilla and Joaquín Bettinelli.
Meanwhile, the member of the jury, Hernán Montes de Oca, influencer creator of the Instagram account “@probandoalfajores”, concluded in dialogue with Télam that the fair and the championship “are here to stay” because “there is a very nice climate, the producers sold a lot and people of all ages are very enthusiastic”.
