We Just Won 2 Stars at the Great Taste Awards - A Win For Cacaofruit
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We have some news.
Kaoba has just been awarded 2 Stars at the Great Taste Awards 2026 — the most respected blind-tasted food and drink accreditation in the world.
For a small, independent drinks brand built on a fruit most people have never heard of, this is a landmark moment. But before we get into what it means, let us tell you what the judges actually said.
What the Judges Said
Three independent judging panels tasted Kaoba blind — no branding, no story, no context. Just the drink.
Here is their verdict, in their own words:
"This bright cloudy soda has an inviting aroma of delicate, perfumed lychee, floral honey and citrus. This follows through to the palate, with a novel and refreshing note of fruity lychee, lime, and light florality."
"A lightly effervescent drink, it is refreshing with an exotic twist. There are notes of lychee, a pleasant natural sweetness — and the judges loved that the product was upcycled."
"Visibly similar to apple juice and with a very mild fruit aroma. The initial flavour is more of that fruit, not too sweet, and we got the lychee in the mix. The carbonation is just right and adds to the experience, bringing those flavours onto the palate joyfully. It is refreshing and vibrant and we really enjoyed the taste and mouthfeel too. Add to that the environmental and economic credentials and this is a big hit."
Read that last line again. A big hit.
These are some of the most experienced palates in the food and drink industry — buyers, chefs, producers and critics. They tasted thousands of products. They chose to say that about ours.
So What Is Kaoba?
Kaoba is a sparkling cacaofruit juice — a drink made from the fruit that surrounds the cacao bean. The same bean that becomes chocolate.
For centuries, the cacaofruit pulp — sweet, tropical, extraordinarily complex — was treated as a byproduct of chocolate production and discarded. Billions of tonnes of it, every year, left to rot.
We saw something different. We saw a drink.
The cacaofruit produces a juice unlike anything else — naturally lychee-forward, with notes of citrus, tropical fruit and a light, floral sweetness. No added sugar. No artificial flavours. No colourings. Just the fruit, sparkling, in a can.
It is, by any measure, a completely original drink. Nothing in the market tastes like it because nothing in the market is made from it.
Why the Great Taste Awards Matter
The Great Taste Awards are not a marketing exercise. You cannot pay your way in and brand recognition counts for nothing. Every entry is tasted blind by panels of expert judges who evaluate purely on what is in the glass, the bottle or the can.
A 2-star rating means the judges didn't just like it. It means they found it to be outstanding — a product that delivers genuine excellence and stops you in your tracks.
Out of the thousands of products entered each year, only a fraction receive 2 stars. Fewer still receive the language our judges used: "refreshing and vibrant," "a big hit," "an exotic twist."
For Kaoba, this is independent, expert validation that what we have built is genuinely exceptional — not just different.
The Part That Surprised Even the Judges
One line in the feedback stands out above everything else:
"The judges loved that the product was upcycled."
This matters more than it might first appear. Kaoba is made from fruit that the chocolate industry previously threw away. Every can of Kaoba represents cacaofruit pulp that was rescued from waste — turned into something beautiful, something delicious, something that has just won 2 stars at the most respected taste awards in the world.
In an industry increasingly focused on sustainability, circularity and responsible sourcing, Kaoba is not making promises about the future. It is already doing it.
What Comes Next
We launched Kaoba because we believed the world deserved a drink made from one of nature's most extraordinary fruits. We believed cacaofruit had the potential to become the next coconut water — a category-defining ingredient that changes the way people think about what they drink.
Two stars from the Great Taste Awards tells us we were right.
We are currently available across a growing number of premium venues, restaurants, hotels and independent retailers. If you would like to stock Kaoba, collaborate, or simply try it for yourself, get in touch.
The fruit that chocolate forgot just won 2 stars. We are just getting started.
Kaoba — Sparkling Cacaofruit Juice. Great Taste 2026 ⭐⭐