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 has become the world's largest independent chocolate competition! This is what accounts for the global success of the 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. chocolates, 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). since 2014, Chocolats-de-luxe.co.uk has been the host and organizer of International Chocolate Awards for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), now one of the largest competitions for fine chocolate in the world.
Chocolate manufacturers who produce their own chocolates Bean-To-Bar, i.e. from bean to bar, first take part in the respective transnational competition in Europe, America and Asia.
The winners (gold, silver and bronze) from the Chocolatiers and Bean-To-Bar competitions send their products to the world finals.
In the times of the Corona Pandemic, Chocolats-de-luxe is the logistic service provider for almost all competitions. The chocolate manufacturers send their products to Hannover, here they get a reference no. and are cut into small samples as well as "neutralized" so that the judge 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 merits 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 as well as chocolate spreads, etc. in a blind tasting by a group of jurors with different professional fields of sensory science, such as sommeliers, kitchen chefs, patissiers, confectioners, bakers, chocolate experts, bloggers 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.
Unlike in sports, there can be several winners: if several chocolates reach the defined range of points for gold, for silver and for bronze, there are also several 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 product that achieves the highest score of all will be highlighted as "Best in Competion"
The test criteria, entry fees and, of course, the winners can be viewed online at the website of the International Chocolate Awards. All chocolatiers and manufacturers can view comments, justifications, hints, etc for the evaluation of their chocolates online, and if necessary improve their chocolate creations. A very transparent award.
The winners and runners-up of the regional competitions are then invited to participate in the world finals and measure their products worldwide. The winners are chosen - alternately in a cocoa producing and chocolate producing country. They are judged according to the same scheme and can then receive a World Gold, Silver, Bronze Award of the International Chocolate Awards receive.
