Tamworth's Deva Cacao pick up gold and bronze at national Clean + Conscious Awards

The business, which makes organic raw chocolate, is based out of Tamworth and employs just three staff, but still managed to beat out some of the biggest players in the industry.

Its Medjool date chocolate took out first place, while the 85g macadamia bar won third prize.

Maggie Quirk, who runs the business along with her husband Ming, said it was incredible to accomplish such an achievement despite their small operation.

"I think we're really excited and really proud to have won a national award of this calibre," she said.

"And we were up against probably the biggest healthy chocolate manufacturer in Australia and they got second."

Deva Cacao's reputation was already growing locally after making the decision to open a cafe next door to Weswall Gallery earlier this year.

Ms Quirk said she has a strong passion for making healthy chocolate, and was glad to be recognised by the Clean + Conscious Awards, which she said reflected her values.

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"They're about two things, one is about sustainability and environmental practices, and the other is about quality of ingredients and no additives," she said.

"For our chocolate we use local honey to sweeten it instead of sugar, so it's probably one of the cleanest chocolates on the Australian market, so I'm not surprised we scored really highly in that regard."

After buying the business five years ago, Ms Quirk also set out to make all of its packaging biodegradable, so it was less harmful to the environment.

She said that decision, and the design on the packaging, put them on the map, but being recognised for their product was obviously a huge honour.

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