A worldwide competition for the best chocolates.
The internationally known competition has existed since 2012 and on (almost) all continents and in many regions. In the meantime, the International Chocolate Awards have become the world's largest chocolate competition!
This is what accounts for the global success of International Chocolate Awards: while in Europe, for example, Chocolate with marzipan is high in popularity, in Asia, for example, seaweed/ kelp is at the top; while in Europe cheese is also popular, blue cheese is banned in America and unknown in Asia. Accordingly, there are jurors on all continents who are familiar with the respective products and preferences and can judge their quality. No other award in the world has this !
Who can participate ?
Chocolatiers (i.e. manufacturers of e.g. Pralines, filled bars, etc. who make their own products, but do not make the Chocolate themselves) first participate in their regional competition (e.g. DACH, Scandinavia, Benelux, Italy & Mediterranean countries, England, France, Eastern Europe, Asia & Pacific, Canada, America, Ecuador and Peru). Chocolats-de-luxe.com has been the host and organizer of International Chocolate Awards for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), one of the largest competitions for fine Chocolate worldwide, since 2014.
Chocolate manufacturers who produce their chocolates Bean-To-Bar, i.e. from the bean to the bar themselves first take part in the respective regional competition in Europe (European), America (Americas) and Asia (Asia/Pacific).
During the corona pandemic, Chocolats-de-luxe.com was the logistics service provider for all competitions. The chocolate manufacturers sent their products to Hannover, there they are cut into small samples as well as "neutralized" and given a 5-digit reference no. and, so that the juror cannot see who the product is from. Then the samples go from Hannover to the worldwide jurors, who evaluate the chocolates "blind" online at home. Each product is judged on its own and not in comparison to others.
What is evaluated ?
The products sent in are tasted and evaluated in 21 categories, e.g. white, milk, dark bars and Pralines, with fillings or ingredients, Bean-To-Bar manufactured Chocolate, Hot Chocolate as well as chocolate spreads, etc. in a blind tasting by a group of jurors with different professional fields of sensory analysis, such as sommeliers, kitchen chefs, patissiers, confectioners, bakers, bloggers chocolate experts as well as the graduates of the "International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting". If the chocolates sent in achieve a defined range of points, the producers receive a bronze, silver or gold award from International Chocolate Awards. The product that achieves the highest score of all is highlighted as "Best in Competition."
Unlike in sports, there can be multiple winners: if multiple chocolates reach the defined range of points for Gold, for Silver and for Bronze, there are also multiple Award Winners. If no product reaches the range for gold/silver/bronze, no corresponding award is given. This is different from sports, where the first one, no matter how good or bad, automatically gets gold.
The winners (gold, silver and bronze winners) of the regional competitions are then invited to participate in the world finals and measure their products worldwide. Following the same scheme, they will be evaluated and can then receive a World Gold, Silver, Bronze Award of the International Chocolate Awards receive. The winners are chosen - alternately in a cocoa producing and chocolate producing country.
The test criteria, participation fees and, of course, the winners can be viewed online on the website of the International Chocolate Awards. The chocolatiers and manufacturers can view comments, justifications, notes from the judges, and the overall rating of their chocolates online, and thus improve their chocolate creations if necessary: a very transparent award.
Interview with the founders of International Chocolate Awards
At the Chocolate Gourmet Festival, the founders Martin Christy, Monica Meschini and Maricel Prescilla talk about the motives that led to the founding of the now worldwide and largest chocolate competition.
