Last week I sent my chocolates to the Asia-Pacific Bean-to-Bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition, International Chocolate Awards 2024 for the third time. Sharing my experience participating.
The second time I sent my chocolates to these awards was in 2014 when they got stuck in Italian customs and never reached their destination. I had sent hundred and sixty pieces of hand-brewed flavors of filled bonbons. I tried everything to get them released from customs but got no correspondence back. I even reached out to an Italian lady I met at an annual French Gala of Main Tendue where Chockriti Chocolates were gifted to guests that year to help translate the documents but never heard back from her as well. They were eventually returned to me after two weeks.
Besides the loss of the international courier costs back and forth and the entrance fee, I was incredibly sad to see all my hard work unnoticed and spoiled. One of the flavors was Kashmiri Kahwa. I created this flavor to commemorate the floods that took place in Kashmir. In 2014, the Kashmir region suffered disastrous floods across many districts caused by torrential rainfall. 277 people in India and about 280 people in Pakistan had died due to the floods. The design of waves on each bonbon was hand painted on top of a printed transfer sheet representing water in the night. The other flavors were Kaffir Lime, Zataar, and another. That year a Zataar-flavored chocolate from another brand won an award and I felt bad I could not participate.
The first time I participated was in 2013. It was a year after I had created my brand of chocolates. I had a seven hundred square feet apartment space in an urban village close to my residence that I converted into a chocolate work studio. I trained and employed two women from an NGO called Kamilini Foundation. Below: pictures of the basic workspace
While I was running around to the printers to do the correct label printing and custom paperwork for the international shipment, the girls were busy doing the finishing touches to the chocolate designs. We had made forty pieces each of Cardamom Coffee, Banaras Paan, Jasmine Green tea, and another flavor for the competition. It was only during packing that I realized that the hand designs the girls did were out of shape, but didn't have time to fix. Then the lights went out and it was already evening. I quickly took out a small solar lamp I had and rushed to finish the packing before the UPS guys were scheduled to pick. We had no generators or invertor facilities there then and ended up packing in the little dim light we got from the lamp. Thankfully, our package arrived safely in the US.
The International Chocolate Awards (pictures below) started as an independent international competition in 2012, intending to recognize excellence in fine chocolate making. The Awards try to support small companies and artisans producing and making chocolate. They are run by a group of international partners based in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong and the USA.
The Awards are organized in two main noteworthy events: Regional Competitions, held in specific countries and regions like Italy, Belgium, or the Americas; and the World Final which looks for the best chocolates among the regional champions.
There are strict eligibility criteria to participate. All chocolate used in all entries in the competitions must be from cacao with a declared and traceable source. All products contain only natural ingredients, and no artificial flavors, sugar alternatives, or synthetic colorings are allowed. The chocolate in fillings cannot be less than 55% and shells must over 60% cacao.
They use an advanced interactive evaluation system for judging, which is based on the IICCT flavor profiling system. Each sample is scored out of 100.00 and awarded a gold, silver, or bronze prize.
The judging process comprises three parts. First, there is a Selection Round where a small panel of experts choose the samples that have a chance to win an award. After this, the samples are sent by the experts to the Main Round where a permanent group of members and local invited experts mark the samples setting aside the ones with the highest scores. These last ones will then progress to the Grand Jury Round where awards, from Gold to Bronze, will be given. The critical areas considered to make the marking are execution, formulation, interpretation, and taste.
All entries receive comprehensive feedback from the new judging system, including the overall product score and standardized feedback statements for all products, and visual flavor profiles for origin bars and cacao ingredients. I did not get any awards even though saw that our cardamom coffee did reach the second round. However, was happy to get comprehensive feedback from the international jury right at the beginning of my chocolate journey which laid the foundation for creating high-end fine bonbons. Below are the pictures at FICA with Martin Christy, founder of ICA at the live announcement of winners.
There was no other brand from India that participated till then.
"While I was traveling to Belgium on a Chocolate exploration/tasting tour, was pleasantly surprised when asked about Chockriti. I was expected to know Chockriti since I was from India! Was told that Chockriti is the only chocolatier to be qualified for the International Chocolate Awards 2013. Such is the influence India has started having on the international stage..!"
- Nitin Chordia, founder of Cocotrait, Chennai
In 2018, Naviluna (formerly Earth Loaf) and Chitram Chocolates participated and were also the first brands to win the ICA awards that year with Chitram founded by Arun Vishwanathan winning at the global platform. In 2021, Paul and Mike won the awards and in 2023, we saw several new brands like Manam, Kokotrait, La Folie win the awards at both the regional and global levels making India proud.
I participated again this year after a ten-year hiatus. I entered just two flavors this time including the Kashmiri Kahwa with 71% Single Origin Indian cacao from Coimbatore state in Tamil Nadu. This time again the chocolates got heat damaged but managed to resend again in time. Speaking with fellow chocolatier, Arun Vishwanathan last night, I realized I am not the only one who faced these challenges and he too lost his entries to heat in the the ICA competition. These are indeed very tough competitions with challenges in all phases, no one knows all the toil that goes behind the work at every level. Huge respect for all the winners and wish all of us luck this year.
Thank you for sharing your experience. It's always nice to learn more about different industries.