Competition Calendar 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.

Origin Traceability

Following our founding principle of transparency and focus on fine cacao, we updated our traceability policy. We want to celebrate and champion the chocolate makers and companies using cacao with an identifiable and traceable source.

You can read more about this move forward here.

2024 Competition 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
- Open for registration: 23 January 2024
- Closing date for samples: 16 February 2024, Florence, Italy
- in-person judging: 18-22 February, Florence, Italy
- Winners

European, Middle Eastern and African Bean-to-Bar Competition
- enter here
- samples accepted: until 19 April 2024
- hybrid judging: 1-14 May 2024, Bucharest, Romania
- Winners’ announcement: 31 May, Slow Coffee Festival, Bucharest, Romania

Eastern European Craft Chocolatier Competition
- Enter here
- Samples accepted: until 30 April
- In-person judging: 9-14 May 2024, Bucharest, Romania
- Winners’ announcement: 31 May, Slow Coffee Festival, Bucharest, Romania

DACH Craft Chocolatier Competition
- Enter here
- Samples accepted: until 23 April 2024
- In-person judging in Hannover, Germany: 26-28 April

French Craft Chocolatier Competition
- June 2024 (tbc)

Benelux Craft Chocolatier Competition
- (tbc)

Scandinavian Craft Chocolatier Competition
- June 2024 (tbc)

Canadian Craft Chocolatier Competition
- September 2024 (tbc)
- remote judging

Asia-Pacific Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
- Registration open: 15 April
- Samples accepted (bars): 25 April – 10 May
- Samples accepted (filled products): 7 June – 19 June
- Hybrid judging
- Winners’ announcement in Hong Kong: 29/30 June 2024 (tbc)

Americas /USA & Canada/- Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
- Enter here
- Samples accepted: 22 April – 31 May 2024
- remote judging
- Winners’ Announcement online: July 2024
Americas /Latin America & the Caribbean/ – Bean-to-bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
- Enter here
- Samples accepted: 22 April – 31 May 2024
- remote judging
- Winners’ Announcement online: July 2024

British Bean-to-Bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition
- In-person judging in Oxford, 24-26 May 2024

Perú – Cacao Country Support Competition
- June-July 2024 (tbc)
- Winners’ announcement: Salon du Chocolat, Lima, Peru

WORLD FINAL
- October-November 2024 (tbc)

CLICK HERE to enter our professional site for Entrants and Judges

Last updated on: 16 April 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!

CLICK HERE to enter our professional site for Entrants and Judges

Competition Calendar 2024