{"id":62683,"date":"2025-11-10T14:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enter.chocolateawards.com\/?p=62683"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:12:29","slug":"world-final-2025-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enter.chocolateawards.com\/nl\/competitions\/world-final-competitions\/world-final-2025-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"World Final 2025 – Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The International Chocolate Awards is pleased to announce the Winners of the<\/strong> 2025 World Final Competition<\/strong><\/a>, which was judged remotely by our international judging panel with final Grand Jury decisions early November 2025.\u00a0<\/p>

The winners were announced by our co-founders Monica Meschini, Maricel Presilla and Martin Christy, and some of our Grand Jury members George Gensler, Adrienne Newman, Gilda Sandique, Jocie Bussin, and Alex Rast.<\/p>

The event was broadcasted live on our YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0where you can access the recording<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>

Judges<\/h3>

This year, over 100 judges have worked with us throughout all the national and regional competitions. Based on our new statistical judge alignment tool, we invited 46 of the most well-aligned judges to our World Final judging panel.<\/a> Using specially selected professional judges from all over the world (14 countries in total), along with many of our IICCT alumni and other specialists and members of our international Grand Jury panel allowed us to evaluate each sample as thoroughly as possible and provide valuable feedback to all of our entrants.<\/p>

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All judging was anonymised, included at the Grand Jury final session, where Golds, Silver and Bronze prizes were awarded by private voting according to the Grand Jury rules.<\/p>

Click here to view the Grand Jury Finalists<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Competition Highlights<\/h3>

The 2025 World Final Ceremony<\/strong> was organized as an online event. The main winners’ announcement was led by co-founder Martin Christy<\/strong><\/em> from Bucharest, Romania, with co-founders Monica Meschini<\/strong><\/em> and Maricel Presilla<\/strong><\/em> joining from Madrid and Greater New York.\u00a0<\/p>

We were happy to see many of our GOLD<\/strong> winners coming together to watch our online ceremony and sharing the joy of winning with their family, their team, their students taking a hands-on chocolatier course and even, as a first in our history, a winner connecting live from the maternity ward awaiting the birth of their child.\u00a0<\/p>

Single-Origin Excellence at an All-Time High<\/h5>

The 2025 season confirmed what judges have been seeing in regional rounds: single-origin bars continue to dominate<\/strong>, both in flavour clarity and technical refinement. Origins such as Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Taiwan showed remarkable consistency.
Dark bars with minimal ingredients outperformed in scoring ranges, showing improved fermentation and roasting across the board.<\/p>

Highly praised varieties, such as Chuncho from Peru were mastered not only by local makers, but also by upcoming new talent like Nibbo Bean-to-Bar<\/strong><\/em> from China taking home a Gold<\/strong> for their Peru Chuncho Dark-Milk 55%<\/em><\/strong> with a score of 90.7.\u00a0<\/p>

Triumphing first time with a Gold <\/strong>at the World Final, El Ganso<\/strong><\/em> from Jun\u00edn, Peru, made by long-time returning entrant and multiple award-winner Cacaosuyo<\/strong><\/em> was also highlighted as Best in Competition Overall Winner<\/strong> in the plain\/origin dark chocolate category. Co-founder Samir Giha<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0expressed heartfelt gratitude to all the farmers growing this exceptional native cacao.<\/p>

Cacao Ingredients Growing as a Serious Category<\/h5>

Cocoa butter and powder used to be niche entries. This year, judges saw:<\/p>