The International Chocolate Awards is pleased to announce the Winners of the European Open Craft Chocolatier competition, which was judged remotely in April-May 2025.
This competition combined the French, Benelux, Scandinavian and Eastern European craft chocolatier entries.
The winners’ announcement was held at Artisan HUB in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday, 17th May during a fun live event where specialty coffee expertise met with the best craft chocolate of Europe. Our co-founder Martin Christy was hosting the event together with Alex Rast, one of our Grand Juror, while our co-founder Monica Meschini and another Grand Juror, George Gensler joined us through Zoom.
The Grand Jury Finalists are listed here.
Winners of these rounds will pass through to the World Final organized in October-November 2025.
This craft competition awards prizes for craft chocolatier products including filled chocolates/bonbons, pralines, enrobed fruits and nuts and chocolate spreads made with bean-to-bar chocolate as well as flavoured bars made with couverture.
Plain/origin and flavoured bean-to-bar products from European chocolate makers were judged at the 2025 European, Middle Eastern and African Bean-to-Bar Competition in April-May 2025.
Judges
The judges were drawn from local experts, food journalists, our IICCT Alumni and members of our permanent international Grand Jury.
Prizes
The categories judged included filled chocolates, enrobed fruits and nuts and chocolate spreads, as well as flavoured bars (not bean-to-bar). All judging is anonymized, including at the Grand Jury final session, where Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes are awarded by private voting.
Awards are awarded only to entries that meet the required standard for each prize.
The 2025 European Open Craft Chocolatier Winners are:
(Prizes are shown in score order for each medal)
‘Best in competition’ overall winners
Filled chocolates
Gold: Eventyr Håndverkssjokolade (Norway) – Santa Ana Og Skogsbær (91.5)Ganaches, palets, ganache pralines and truffles
Flavoured dark chocolate ganaches or truffles
Gold: Eventyr Håndverkssjokolade (Norway) – Santa Ana Og Skogsbær (91.5)
+ Special: Local ingredients
Silver: La Carambole (Netherlands) – Vegan Passion Decadence (90.6)
+ Special: Vegan
Silver: Ara Chocolat (France) – Ganache au Thé Awa-Bancha (88.8) (**)
Silver: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Coffee Ganache (88.2) (**)
Bronze: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – White Temple Tea & Honey (86.6) (**)
Bronze: Ara Chocolat (France) – Ganache Bourgeon de Cassis (86.3) (**)
Flavoured milk chocolate ganaches or truffles
Bronze: Maria Magdalena Bizgan (Romania) – Rum Ganache Milk Chocolate Bonbon (86.3)
Flavoured white chocolate ganaches or truffles
Bronze: Gånsviks Choklad (Sweden) – Prinsessan (86.9)
Flavoured ganaches or truffles with combination coating or filling
Gold: La Carambole (Netherlands) – Green Pumpkin Beanie (89.4)
+ Special: Modern
Silver: Gånsviks Choklad (Sweden) – Magnus (88.8)
Bronze: Chocolala (Estonia) – Raspberry-matcha-black Sesame Crunch (86.7)
Bronze: Sirène by PetriS Chocolate (Finland) – Cherry-Lemon (86.0)
Bronze: La Carambole (Netherlands) – Marocco (85.9)
Nuts
Nut based pralines with dark chocolate
Silver: Louis Fouquet (France) – Praliné Feuilleté Noisette Noir (87.0)
Bronze: La Carambole (Netherlands) – A Bitter Flower (86.4)
Dark chocolate dragées, enrobed whole nuts
Gold: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Dragée (88.8) (**)
+ Special: Classic
+ Special: Organic
Silver: chocoMe (Hungary) – Chocome Atelier – Åkesson,voatsiperifery (88.7) (**)
Silver: chocoMe (Hungary) – Chocome Atelier – Kamili 70%, Piemonte (87.4) (**)
Silver: chocoMe (Hungary) – Chocome Atelier – Chuao Bean Dragée 72% (87.0) (**)
Nut based pralines with milk chocolate
Bronze: Louis Fouquet (France) – Gianduja Pistache Lait (86.5)
White chocolate dragées, enrobed whole nuts
Gold: Flore Confectionery (Hungary) – Sweet Sushi Dragee (89.2)
+ Special: Eclectic
Silver: Flore Confectionery (Hungary) – Smoke Signals Chocolate Dragée (88.6)
Bronze: Prague Chocolate Steiner & Kovarik (Czech Republic) – Kampot Pepper in White Chocolate 40% (85.9) (**)
Caramels
Dark chocolate enrobed caramels
Silver: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Extra Dark Thyme Caramel (87.6) (**)
Silver: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Sitter (87.4) (**)
Milk chocolate enrobed caramels
Gold: Fjåk Chocolate (Norway) – Brown Cheese Caramels & Milk Chocolate (90.0) (**)
+ Special: Local ingredients
Silver: Sirène by PetriS Chocolate (Finland) – Seabuck thorn – HoneyCaramel (89.1)
Others – fruit/sugar/butter/cream/misc
Dark chocolate enrobed whole fruit
Bronze: Maria Magdalena Bizgan (Romania) – Dark Chocolate Candied Lemon Zest (86.1)
Bronze: Maria Magdalena Bizgan (Romania) – Dark Chocolate Sour Cherry (85.9)
Dark chocolate enrobed manon/butter/cream
Bronze: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Frederiksdal Cherry (85.8) (**)
Bronze: Friis-Holm Chokolade (Denmark) – Hansens Hindbær (85.6) (**)
Spreads
Spreads with milk chocolate
Gold: Louis Fouquet (France) – Pâte À Tartiner Pistache (89.5)
+ Special: Ingredients
(*) Declared chocolate maker for private label bars.
(**) Winner has declared the product is made with their own bean-to-bar chocolate or couverture.
