Canadian Craft Chocolate Competition, 2026

Location: Toronto, Canada
Closing date: 13 March 2026
Judging dates: 9 Apr 2026 – 8 May 2026

Canadian Craft Chocolate Competition

The Canadian Craft Chocolate Competition celebrates the work of craft chocolate makers creating chocolate bars from traceable fine cacao, and craft chocolatiers using chocolate with an identifiable and traceable cacao source. By helping to promote traceable chocolate, we aim to support the work of cacao farmers producing fine cacao and create a more sustainable market for high-end specialty cacao.

Remote judging for all products

The products for this competition will be received in our Toronto base and will then be repacked as blinded samples and sent to our panel of Canadian judges and members of our international Grand Jury to judge at home using our online judging system. Reference sets of each submission will be held at the receiving venue in case of any issue with the samples sent to judges and products will be blinded as usual.

Winners of the Canadian competition will pass through to the World Final, which will be held in October/November 2026.

Cacao sourcing and origin traceability

The International Chocolate Awards is committed to supporting economically, socially and environmentally sustainable cacao farming where farmers are paid a reasonable price that reflects the work that goes into growing fine cacao. We also believe that the chocolate with the best flavor profiles comes from directly sourced fine cacao.

As a result, all entrants must provide details of the cacao origin used in their dark and milk chocolate entries, including chocolatiers. These details are given confidentially if preferred. White chocolate and cocoa butter are currently excluded from these requirements, except for unflavoured white chocolate products.

By ‘origin,’ we mean a known region, area, district, or farm recognized as a source of fine cacao. If the origin is not a single farm or cooperative, entrants must specify the cacao sources within the origin. Blends are acceptable if they use no more than three different named origins, including cooperatives, post-harvest centres, commercial farmers, research stations, or individual farms. We do not accept entries where the only specified origin is the cacao-growing country, except for smaller cacao-producing countries (under 4,000 tonnes per year).

These rules apply to all chocolate used in competition entries, including filled chocolates, spreads, and drinking chocolate. Products made with commercial couverture chocolate without a stated cacao origin are not eligible to enter. Details of the origin must be obtained from the chocolate maker or supplier if the entrant is not the chocolate maker.

For full details, please refer to our competition rules.

Judging scores and flavor profiles

All entries will receive comprehensive feedback from our new judging system, including the overall product score and standardised feedback statements for all products, and visual flavor profiles for origin bars and cacao ingredients. We use our advanced interactive evaluation system for judging, which is based on the IICCT flavor profiling system. Scores are weighted to align with specialty coffee scores. Scores will be published on our website for all Grand Jury Finalists

Eligibility

This competition is open to all companies with their main base or head office in Canada for all filled chocolates, covered nuts and fruits and spreads made from bean-to-bar and couverture chocolate and for flavoured bars made from couverture, where the entrant is not the chocolate maker. This competition also judges plain/origin and flavoured bars made with the entrants own bean-to-bar chocolate.

The admission fee for this competition is CAD $120 and the fee for each entry is CAD $100. Prices will be converted into local currency by your credit card company, if required.