As part of our commitment to transparency, we publish the names of the judges for each competition. (If judges opt-in for their names to be made public.)

Each competition is judged by a panel of experts, food journalists, sommeliers and pastry chefs, including the names listed below. The competition is overseen by members of our international Grand Jury, who travel to each competition.

We would like to thank our judges for their hard work, including any who chose for their names not to be listed. You can find the full list of winners for this competition in our ‘Rounds & results’ section.

Cat Black (United Kingdom), Food Writer, Food writer

Martin Christy (United Kingdom), Seventy%, Permanent Grand Jury

Zouheir Dalati (Australia), Lawyer

George Gensler (United States), Manhattan Chocolate Society, Permanent Grand Jury

Bob Goldfarb (United States), Cocoazoo

Benifer Irani Lodhi (India), Synclariti Solutions

Manju James (Norway), Research Scholar

Jeffrey Lee (Hong Kong), Cult de Choco Ltd. / Director, Cult de Choco

Yaxing Li (New Zealand), The Chocolate Bar NZ Ltd/ Owner, The Chocolate Bar NZ

Shirley Lum (Canada), S Chocolate Magic

Monica Meschini (Italy), Chocolate/Tea Taster, Wine Sommelier, Permanent Grand Jury

Adrienne Newman (United States), Founder at Flavor Curious Travel

Giacomo Pischiutti (United Kingdom), Corporate Chef Consultant UNOX UK / Pastry Chef

Maricel Presilla (United States), Chef, Restaurateur, Author, Permanent Grand Jury

Alex Rast (United Kingdom), Consultant, Reviewer, Seventy% , Permanent Grand Jury

Ashi Rohra (India), Kwality Food Products, Gwalior

Erin Seidemann (United States), Canaccord Genuity / Supervisory Analyst, Vice President, Destination: Chocolate

Jana Siegl (Czech Republic), Event Coordinator (in a pharmaceutical company)

Joy Skipper (United Kingdom), Food and Nutrition Consultant, Joy Skipper

Gabriella Szabo (Hungary), Freelance chocolate blogger, journalist, speaker (chocolate tastings and pairings), https://specialtystories.coffee/

Michelle Zimmerman (United States), Curating Taste