The International Chocolate Awards in 2024

Launching the 12th Edition of the International Chocolate Awards, we are proud to announce our calendar for the 2024 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 in-person and 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 relaunched all of our filled chocolate competitions as “Craft Chocolatier Competitions” in 2021-22. 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 2024. We’re also proud to continue our Cacao Country Support competitions in Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Central America.

2024 Calendar

• Craft Drinking Chocolate Competition
  • 21-23 January
  • in-person judging at SIGEP, Rimini, Italy
  • Winners‘ Announcement: 23 January, 3pm at SIGEP
  • Winners
    
• Italian/Mediterranean Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • in-person judging: 18-22 February, Florence, Italy
  • Winners
    
• European, Middle Eastern and African Bean-to-Bar Competition
  • hybrid judging: 1-14 May 2024, Bucharest, Romania
  • Winners‘ announcement: 31 May, Slow Coffee Festival, Bucharest, Romania
  • Winners
    
• Eastern European Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • in-person judging: 9-14 May 2024, Bucharest, Romania
  • Winners‘ announcement: 31 May, Slow Coffee Festival, Bucharest, Romania
  • Winners
    
• DACH Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • samples accepted: until 23 April
  • in-person judging: 26-28 April 2024, Hannover, Germany
  • Winners
    
• French Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • September 2024
    
• Benelux Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • September 2024
    
• Scandinavian Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • September 2024
    
• Canadian Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • September 2024
  • remote judging
  • Winners
    
• Asia-Pacific Bean-to-bar and  Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • open for registration: 15 April 2024
  • open for samples (bars): 25 April – 10 May
  • open for samples (filled products): 7 June – 15 June
  • remote judging for bars
  • in-person judging for filled products: 23-27 June, Hong Kong
  • Winners‘ Announcement in Hong Kong, 1 July
  • Winners
    
• Americas /North America: USA&Canada/- Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • open for registration: 11 April
  • open for samples: 22 April – 31 May
  • remote judging
  • Winners‘ Announcement online: 12 September 2024
  • Winners
    
• Americas /Latin America & the Caribbean/ – Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • open for registration: 11 April
  • open for samples: 22 April – 31 May
  • remote judging
  • Winners‘ Announcement online: 12 September 2024
  • Winners
    
• British Bean-to-Bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
  • May 2024
  • Winners
    
• Perú – Cacao Country Support Competition
  • July 2024
  • Winners

• WORLD FINAL
  • registration closing: 9 October 2024
  • samples accepted until: 11 October (from outside the EU) in Hannover, Germany
  • samples accepted until: 16 October (from within the EU) in Bucharest, Romania
  • Winners‘ Announcement Online: 9 November 2024

Latest update: 2 October 2024

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, European-Middle Eastern-African, 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!