Americas Craft Chocolate Competition – USA, 2026

Lieu: New York, United States
Date de clôture: mars 13, 2026
Dates d’évaluation: avril 9, 2026 – mai 8, 2026

The Americas Craft Chocolate Competitions celebrate chocolate makers creating origin bars from traceable fine cacao and 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.

To recognise the growing craft market in the Americas and the quality of chocolate coming from traditional chocolate consuming regions and from cacao growing countries, we are dividing Americas into two judging competitions, USA and Latin American and the Caribbean. These two competitions will be judged simultaneously with prizes awarded separately in each competition.

Please note: the receiving venue is open to accept shipments Monday Through Friday, 8:00am CST to 5:00pm CST.

Online judging

The Americas competitions will once again be judged online with judges working in their own locations. This allows us to include the widest range of experienced judges from countries in the region.

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

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

Éligibilité

Open to all entrants with their main office or headquarters in the USA, for all categories including cocoa butter and cocoa powder, but NOT including drinking chocolate. A separate World Drinking Chocolate competition was held earlier this year.

Canadian companies may only enter the Canadian Craft Chocolate Competition – for all categories including cocoa butter and cocoa powder, but NOT including drinking chocolate – which is running concurrently.

Le prix d’admission à cette compétition s’élève à USD $85 et les frais de participation s’élèvent à USD $80. Les prix seront convertis en monnaie locale par la carte de crédit de votre entreprise, si nécessaire.