The world of fine food rightly insists on knowing your ingredients. With chocolate this means making sensitive and informed choices about the cacao in chocolate. It means choosing chocolate for its flavor, while thinking about the work, lives and environment of those growing the cacao used to make chocolate.
With these ideals in mind, we have made the decision that, starting with the 2021-22 season, all our chocolatier competitions will now be solely dedicated to dark and milk chocolate products made with cacao with an identifiable and traceable source. (Note: this rule does not currently apply to white chocolate or cocoa butter).
This new approach reflects not only current trends in craft chocolate, but also our own founding philosophy and focus on fine cacao. In the ten years since our launch, the International Chocolate Awards has seen a growing emphasis on the sourcing, processing and flavor quality of cacao in the chocolate used by our entrants.
Chocolatiers are paying far greater attention to the chocolate they use to craft bonbons and flavoured bars. Meanwhile, more chocolate makers are becoming chocolatiers themselves, working with their own chocolate, while an increasing number of established chocolatiers are starting to produce their own chocolate from the bean.
In the spirit of these welcome developments, we are relaunching our chocolatier competitions to best champion craft chocolate and its potential for pairing and matching with different flavors and ingredients. From 2021-22, we will only accept dark and milk chocolates with a declared and traceable source for the cacao. (Note: this rule does not currently apply to white chocolate or cocoa butter).
Blends are still acceptable, provided that the source of each cacao used is also declared. The sourcing information can either be public or declared in confidence with the Awards, which is what we already ask of our entrants submitting origin bars.
This change brings our chocolatier entries inline with our bean-to-bar competitions, and we are proud to celebrate and support the work of the growers, chocolate makers and all the supporting industries working to produce the world’s best chocolate products.
