The International Chocolate Awards in 2021-22

Launching the 10th Edition of the International Chocolate Awards, we are proud to announce our calendar for the 2021-22 season. As dates and locations for some competitions are still being confirmed, please check our site regularly to make sure you don’t miss your regional competition. The judging will be partly remote, with samples sent to judges at home. Please refer to the individual competition announcements for more information.

Following our founding principle of transparency and focus on fine cacao, we have decided to relaunch all of our filled chocolate competitions as “Craft Chocolatier Competitions”. We want to celebrate and champion the chocolate makers and companies using cacao with an identifiable and traceable source. This change brings our chocolatier entries inline with our bean-to-bar competitions. You can read more about this move forward in our announcement here.

All winners of any of the regional competitions are eligible to enter our prestigious World Final and World Final Ceremony held later in 2022. We’re also proud to continue our Cacao Country Support competitions in Peru, Colombia and Central America.

2021-22 Calendar

• Perú – Cacao Country Support Competition
  • September 2021
  • WINNERS
• Italian/Mediterranean Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 27 September 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 15 October 2021, Florence, Italy
  • WINNERS
• Colombia – Cacao Country Support Competition
  • Open for registration: 18 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 1 November 2021, Arauca, Colombia (remote judging)
  • WINNERS
• Eastern European Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 2 December 2021 (remote judging*)
  • WINNERS
• DACH Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 2 December 2021 (remote judging*)
  • WINNERS
• French Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 2 December 2021 (remote judging*)
  • WINNERS
• Benelux Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 2 December 2021 (remote judging*)
  • WINNERS
• Scandinavian Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 2 December 2021 (remote judging*)
  • WINNERS
• Canadian Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 21 October 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 12 November 2021 (remote judging)
  • WINNERS
• European, Middle Eastern and African Bean-to-bar Competition
  • Open for registration: 3 November 2021
  • Closing date for samples: 7 January 2022 (remote judging)
• Asia-Pacific Bean-to-bar and  Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: 8 January 2022
  • Closing date for samples: 25 February 2022 (remote judging)
• Americas – Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: February 2022
  • Closing date for samples: 29 April 2022 (remote judging)
• British Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • Open for registration: March 2022
  • Closing date for samples: 29 April 2022 (remote judging)
• Perú – Cacao Country Support Competition
  • Open for registration: 11 May 2022
  • Closing date for samples: 31 May 2022
  • ENTER HERE
• Drinking Chocolate
  • May-June 2022
• World Final
  • autumn 2022

*For the Eastern European, DACH, French, Benelux, and Scandinavian Craft Chocolatier Competitions our local organizer partner in Germany is accepting entries throughout the entry period. We will make sure that our remote judges will regularly receive shipments of samples and they will judge entries within 3 weeks of receiving products from our entrants. This ensures that all products will be judged in their freshest, most perfect state.

Which competition should you enter?

Because we are running our plain/origin and flavoured bean-to-bar chocolate competitions separately from our Craft Chocolatier Competitions, if you are a company that creates products relevant for both, you might not be sure which competitions you should enter your specific products to.

• Regional Craft Chocolatier Competitions accept and judge chocolate products made from couverture or the entrant’s own bean-to-bar chocolate, both having a clearly traceable source for the cacao used.
  Product types accepted:  filled chocolates, truffles, ganaches, pralines, caramels, fondants, enrobed fruits and nuts and spreads made from chocolate couverture or from the entrant’s own bean-to-bar chocolate, as well as flavoured chocolate bars made from chocolate couverture (but not bean-to-bar).

• Regional Bean-to-Bar Competitions accept and judge plain/origin chocolate bars and flavoured chocolate bars made from the entrant’s own bean-to-bar chocolate, all products having a clearly traceable source for the cacao used.
  Product types accepted: (all bean-to-bar!) plain chocolate bars, single origin plain chocolate bars, flavoured chocolate bars, flavoured single origin chocolate bars.

As an example, a company creating bars and filled chocolates from their own bean-to-bar chocolate should therefore enter their plain/origin and flavoured bars to the relevant Regional Bean-to-Bar Competition (eg. Americas, Europe/EMEA, Asia-Pacific) and their bonbons, dragées, spreads to the relevant Regional Craft Chocolatier Competition (eg. Americas, Canada, Eastern Europe, DACH, Asia-Pacific etc.).
Whereas, a company creating bars and filled chocolates from couverture, should enter all of their products to the relevant Regional Craft Chocolatier Competition.

We hope that this explanation makes it clearer where to enter your chocolate products. But if you are still unsure, feel free to contact us for further guidance.

We look forward to seeing many of our regular and also new entrants in their respective competitions and we wish all our entrants good luck!