This toad is not just wild. Now it’s also award winning. A Fort Worth-based toffee operation just brought plenty of hardware home from the International Chocolate Salon Awards. Wildtoad Toffee took silver and bronze and brought home four stars on the international stage of the 2023 Toffee Awards.

For those in the know, Wildtoad Toffee is a go-to hostess gift source in Fort Worth. Wildtoad has been bringing devotees into chocolatey buttery bliss from the very first bite ever since it sold its first bag in 2014. Every batch is hand-stirred, artisan toffee. It is also gluten and preservative-free ― and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It’s amazing how simple ingredients like real butter, Imperial pure cane sugar, Guittard chocolate and fresh pecans can make for pure joy.

Wildtoad owner Cheri Morgan used to make her toffee only for friends and family during the holidays, but they demanded more. So she took a chance — and after the first batch sold out quickly, her toffee business was born. As for the name Wildtoad, the horned toad has special meaning in Texas. Especially in Fort Worth, the home of Texas Christian University. And each Wildtoad toffee package is tied with a wild animal print ribbon.

Wildtoad toffee is crisp and buttery and the thin layer of chocolate and chopped pecans are really just there to gild the lily. This writer is a longtime fan.

Morgan has a secret weapon in regard to quality control of the product too.

“My whole crew is made up of ladies over fifty,” she tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “I keep getting blessed by these incredible women. They just get it. They understand that every batch and every package have to be right.”

Wildtoad In the Chocolate Awards

The International Chocolate Salon Awards began in California in 2007 in conjunction with TasteTV. Since then it has expanded to include several annual juried award competitions for national product categories like caramels, truffles, drinking chocolate and in this case ― toffee.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever entered a competition,” Morgan says. “I saw the list of previous winners, and knew their names well. So I thought I’d give it a try.”

At the Salon Awards event, Morgan entered her dark chocolate-covered toffee with pecans and the results were delicious. That toffee won a bronze medal for Best Texture. Wildtoad also achieved enough points from the judging panel to attain silver in both the Best Taste and Top Toffee categories. Overall, this delicacy produced in Fort Worth ranked high enough to attain Four Stars. Of course, local fans and those who have been on the receiving end of a batch of Morgan’s toffee could have told you this toffee ranks with the best already.

While Wildtoad Toffee does a brisk business in both online sales and corporate gifting, it’s really the shows that owner Cheri Morgan enjoys the most.

“We laugh a lot and try to make sure our customers feel seen. That’s so rare today,” she says. “When we get to hear their incredible stories, some telling us that they never thought they’d get to taste their grandmother’s toffee again, it’s very rewarding.”