World Craft Drinking Chocolate Competition, 2025

Location: Rimini, Italy
Closing date: 14 January 2025
Judging dates: 18 Jan 2025 – 22 Jan 2025

Drinking Chocolate at SIGEP, Italy  ‘The Dolce World Expo’

In 2025, just like last year, our prestigious drinking chocolate competition comes back to Rimini, Italy where chocolate drinks will be judged during SIGEP, one of the leading European trade shows for all things in the sweet foodservice sector, including gelato, pastry, bakery and coffee.

The Craft Drinking Chocolate competition celebrates the work of small chocolate makers working with the best cacao to create outstanding chocolate drinks made with traceable origin cacao and chocolate. The competition will judge drinks, chocolate preparations, cocoa powder mixes, infusions, products made from the cacao pulp or fruit and alcoholic drinks made with chocolate or cacao.

Sending your samples

Samples will be received at our Italian partner venue in Florence and then transported to Rimini before judging begins.

All entries must be sent to Florence and must arrive by 16 January 2025.

Important – Customs information

If you are sending from outside the EU, you MUST include a properly formatted customs invoice that includes the correct value for your entries and HS commodity codes to ensure that your entries arrive in time. We will give you this information in the correct format after you enter, please make sure you follow our format or your entries may not arrive.

You are advised to send products in your normal retail packaging if possible, but mark each package or box with “COMMERCIAL SAMPLE – NOT FOR SALE”. (This is also on the product labels we provide.)

Rules for importing food into the EU are becoming stricter, particularly with foods containing any animal products, such as milk powder in milk or white chocolate. To avoid problems, delays and extra charges, please pay attention to the customs requirements for your shipment and make sure you complete all the correct details for your customs invoice.

If your product includes milk or white chocolate made with animal milk, you are advised to declare the origin of the milk powder. The same applies if milk is listed in your ingredients. If possible, a letter from your supplier confirming that the milk powder provided comes exclusively from the declared origin will help. If you are using alternative non-dairy/vegan milk powder, please make this clear and do NOT use the word ‘milk’.

We will try to help as much as possible with customs problems, but if there are any delays or charges these will be your responsibility. By far the best approach is to get the paperwork right in the first place, then there is much more chance of your package going through without any problems.

Cacao sourcing and origin traceability

The International Chocolate Awards is committed to full traceability and the use of origin cacao sourced from cacao growers directly by the chocolate maker, or through a cacao trader with full transparency. We believe that this provides the most sustainable type of cacao production and makes the best tasting chocolate.

We will require full details of the origin and cacao sources used when you enter your products. These can be given confidentially if preferred. Details of the origin must be obtained from the chocolate maker or supplier if you did not make the chocolate yourself.

‘Origin’ means a known region, area, district, or farm recognised as a source of fine cacao, or a smaller cacao country producing less than 4000 tonnes of cacao per year. If the origin is not a specific farm or cooperative, you will need to give details of the cacao sources within the origin. You can read our rules for full details.

Products made with commercial couverture chocolate with no stated cacao origin are not eligible for this competition. The rules also apply to cocoa powder used in drinking chocolate. White chocolate and cocoa butter are currently excluded from the origin rules, except for unflavoured white chocolate products.

Eligibility

The 2025 Craft Drinking Chocolate competition is open to all chocolate companies around the World. Our normal rules apply about all-natural ingredients and minimum percentages. Please see our “Categories and Rules” for details.

Products entered in the competition must be available for retail sale in a form that consumers can take away and prepare or consume at home. Products must be on sale for at least one month in 2025.

Recipe: You must provide a recommended recipe for your product, including recommended fat percentages and type of milk (including plant-based alternatives), if used, and for sweetening if required. How a drinking chocolate is made can be as important as the quality of the chocolate and other ingredients, so you are advised to provide a specific and well thought out recipe to be sure your product is consumed in the best possible format.

Please note, the only ingredients we can provide are: water, milk (including plant-based alternatives where available) and cream, heated as directed, and standard cane sugar if required. All other ingredients required for the recipe must be part of the retail drinking chocolate product.

The admission fee for this competition is EUR €70 and the fee for each entry is EUR €65. Prices will be converted into local currency by your credit card company, if required.