The Northwest Chocolate Festival 2026

Making the link between soil health and fine flavor chocolate

This talk will explore how regenerative agroforestry can protect cacao genetics while restoring degraded land and strengthening rural communities in Guatemala. Drawing from the experience of Kampura and Finca Nahuatancillo, I will share how a former cattle pasture has been transformed into a biodiverse, productive system that supports high-quality cacao alongside other tree crops. The presentation will connect ecological practices—such as canopy management, soil regeneration, and biodiversity—to outcomes that matter for chocolate makers, including flavor development, resilience, and long-term supply stability.

Beyond the farm itself, this talk will examine how agricultural systems shape human outcomes. I will discuss how Kampura approaches labor, community engagement, and long-term investment in local infrastructure, and why these factors are inseparable from the quality of the cacao produced. Attendees will gain a grounded understanding of how agroforestry can function as both a production model and a framework for stewardship—offering practical insight into sourcing, sustainability, and the future of cacao.

This talk focuses on the educational work we carry out at Semilla Escuela de Cacao y Chocolate to train chocolatiers in cacao-producing countries.

We explore how education becomes a key tool to create added value at origin, by training a new generation of chocolatiers who not only master technique, but also deeply understand the origin, quality, and potential of the cacao they work with.

The experience includes a guided tasting of chocolates made by artisan chocolatiers who graduated from the school. Through these products, participants will discover how knowledge, practice, and access to tools can transform cacao into products with identity, quality, and market vision.

This session also gives visibility to those who are learning and dreaming of building their own chocolate projects, highlighting the importance of education in creating real opportunities within cacao-growing communities.

In addition, it emphasizes the importance of strengthening direct relationships between chocolatiers and producers, fostering more transparent, conscious, and sustainable connections within the cacao and chocolate value chain.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, we'll take a look back at the important role chocolate played in colonial and  even Revolutionary times, including the forgotten social custom of drinking chocolate being served and shared amongst adults.

I will take you on a journey to produce chocolate starting with the trees in the jungle, progressing through all the steps to final production resulting in a chocolate bar. You will sample fresh cacao that we split open in the lecture.

100% chocolate offers a rare opportunity to experience cacao without distraction. In this session, we’ll taste a range of single origin chocolates and examine how growing region, post-harvest practices, and roast profiles influence flavor. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how chocolate can express notes of fruit, florals, earth, and nuts—all from just one ingredient.

In this 50-minute presentation and tasting, I will share how KESSHŌ uses Asian-inspired bean-to-bar chocolate as a medium for collaboration, storytelling, and sensory exploration.

Rather than treating collaboration as simply putting two brand names on one product, I will talk about how we approach it as co-storytelling: finding the shared language between cacao and another brand’s world. Through examples including a Michelin-recognized Texas BBQ collaboration in Austin, Fly By Jing’s chili crisp, and Quinta do Noval Port wine, I will explore how chocolate can connect with smoke, spice, umami, fruit, tannin, texture, and cultural memory.

The talk will move between creative process, flavor development, brand storytelling, and tasting. We will look at how a collaboration begins, how we decide what story the chocolate should tell, and how we translate another brand’s identity into a bar that still feels true to KESSHŌ’s craft.
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I hope to communicate that chocolate is more than a finished product. It can be a meeting place between cultures, crafts, ingredients, and people.

Through tasting and storytelling, I want the audience to experience how collaboration can expand the way we think about chocolate. A chocolate bar can carry the patience of slow BBQ, the confidence and aromatics of chili crisp, or the elegance and depth of Port wine. But for a collaboration to work, it must be more than surprising. It has to be balanced, intentional, and emotionally understandable.

I also hope to show that Asian-inspired flavors in chocolate are not a novelty or decoration. For KESSHŌ, they are a way of bringing memory, culture, and perspective into the craft of bean-to-bar chocolate. My goal is to communicate this through sensory experience: tasting, smelling, comparing, and discussing how flavors tell stories.
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The audience will experience a guided tasting that connects flavor with story. They will taste examples that show how chocolate can interact with other culinary worlds, including smoke, spice, umami, wine, fruit, and texture.

They will also learn how KESSHŌ thinks about collaboration from both a creative and technical perspective, including:

How to identify a meaningful sensory bridge between two brands.
How to balance strong flavors without overwhelming the cacao.
How to preserve the identity of both collaborators.
How to turn a flavor idea into a product with a clear story.
How tasting can become a way of understanding culture, craft, and brand identity.

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The audience will leave with a broader understanding of what craft chocolate can be. They will see how chocolate can move beyond traditional pairings and become a platform for creative dialogue across food, culture, and brand identity.

The plant behind our favorite chocolate is bursting with extraordinary flavors, textures, and sensations beyond its beloved bean. In this session, we will meet the makers from origin unlocking cacao's full potential and experience a range of products that explore the world of possibilities waiting to be discoveredin the rest of this fabulous fruit.

Picking a great chocolate bar starts with knowing how to read the label. Lauren Adler, specialty chocolate expert and founder of The Chocolate Explorers Club, shares the three things she looks for on every bar. Walk away with a simple, practical framework you can put to work on the festival floor the same day.

Long before cinnamon and cane sugar became the default, Mesoamerican cooks engineered a botanical masterpiece: the marriage of cacao and capsicums.
Moving beyond the modern novelty of "spicy chocolate," this session delves into the neurogastronomy and historical foodways of this ancient pairing. Attendees will discover the biological brilliance behind the union and extract structural lessons from ancestral Maya drinks, Mexican moles, regional savory recipes, and Spanish interpretations.
Transitioning to contemporary applications, the presentation offers actionable techniques for cooks, chefs, and craft chocolate makers. We will discuss cultivar layering, such as blending the zero-heat musky notes of ají dulce with a fraction of habanero to capture immense Capsicum chinense flavor without masking fine cacao.
Finally, the session covers the mechanics of small-batch bean-to-bar production for flawless, perfectly dispersed capsicum heat in chocolate.
The session concludes with a visual exploration of diverse capsicum profiles—mapping distinct species characteristics and their ideal botanical pairings with specific regional cacaos.

What happens when a Master Tea Blender and a Chocolate Maker become friends? Come taste the results and learn more from the Tea Maker and  Chocolate Maker of Pike Place Market

“Ceremonial cacao” has become a rapidly growing category in global wellness and conscious consumption spaces. Yet despite its popularity, there is still no clear collective understanding of what ceremonial cacao truly means, who defines it, and how its value is created.
Is ceremonial cacao defined by genetics? Processing methods? Intention? Ritual use? Preparation as a drink? Cultural lineage? Ethical sourcing? Or the relationship to the communities and territories where cacao originates?
This talk explores the emerging conversation around ceremonial cacao from the perspective of origin countries, ancestral cacao traditions, and contemporary cacao production. It examines how cacao’s historical role as a beverage—and not originally as a chocolate bar—shapes the understanding of ceremonial use today.
Drawing from experiences in Peru and conversations across origin communities, this session proposes a deeper framework for ceremonial cacao: one that honors territory, transparency, producer participation, post-harvest integrity, and the cultural context surrounding cacao.
Led by a Peruvian speaker from a cacao-producing country, this session also brings an origin perspective into conversations that are often shaped primarily outside producing regions. It invites reflection on how origin countries can participate not only as suppliers of cacao, but also as voices shaping the meanings, standards, and future of ceremonial cacao itself.
Rather than reducing ceremonial cacao to branding or trend, this talk asks how the category can evolve responsibly while creating more value, recognition, and agency within producing countries themselves.

This session explores the science of tempering in a practical, approachable way. I will compare hand tempering and machine tempering techniques, discuss the advantages and limitations of each approach, and share practical troubleshooting strategies for changing environments, varying chocolate formulations, production schedules, and equipment. Whether working in a small artisan kitchen or a larger commercial operation, attendees will gain the confidence to diagnose and correct common tempering problems before they affect production and leave with a deeper understanding of how to consistently produce beautifully tempered chocolate without using thermometers or memorizing temperatures.

This presentation explores Peru as a living origin of cacao through three interconnected lenses: genetic diversity, sensory experience, and chocolate-making practice.

Bringing together expertise from cacao anthropology, genetic research, and bean-to-bar production, we will guide the audience through the unique richness of Peruvian cacao. Drawing on ongoing work from organizations such as Alliance Bioversity International, which has identified at least 16 distinct genetic varieties in Peru, we will unpack how science is reshaping our understanding of cacao origins and diversity in Latin America.

At the same time, we will translate this scientific knowledge into sensory language. Through curated tastings led by an anthropologist and professional taster, participants will learn how genetic diversity expresses itself in flavor—aroma, texture, and complexity—across different Peruvian regions.

Finally, from a maker’s perspective, we will explore what it means to work with this diversity. How do chocolate makers approach distinct genetic profiles? What challenges and opportunities arise when crafting chocolate from multiple origins within one country? Drawing from real production experience, we will share insights into sourcing, formulation, and storytelling.

Rather than treating genetics, tasting, and production as separate domains, this talk connects them into a single narrative: cacao as a living system shaped by people, place, and practice.

Audience will:

Understand Peru’s role as a key center of cacao diversity and origin
Learn how genetic variation influences flavor profiles in chocolate
Develop a more nuanced sensory vocabulary through guided tasting
Gain insight into how chocolate makers translate origin into craft
Leave with a deeper appreciation of cacao as both a scientific and cultural heritage

This session is designed as an immersive journey—bridging science, flavor, and craft—to offer a holistic understanding of what makes Peruvian cacao truly unique.

Learn how to sell your craft chocolate business beyond just having a great product. Join Ricardo Trillos for a practical session on creating powerful sales pitches that connect with customers and clearly communicate your value. Discover techniques to maximize your story, grow your brand impact, and turn conversations into consistent leads and sales. We’ll finish with a quick networking exercise to put it all into action.

America loves chocolate, and chocolate mirrors our nation back to us through law: chocolate engages human rights and environmental law, Constitutional and corporate and criminal law, intellectual property and consumer and food protections, rights of women and of indigenous peoples, and multiple additional areas along with Supreme Court and other judicial opinions, federal and state statutes, FDA and Customs regulations, and fundamental notions of ethics, life, liberty, and happiness. Our upbeat and interactive session will include a chocolate tasting of small-batch U.S. brands as we explore chocolate through law and mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Students will be graded on a written paper analyzing a topic of law and chocolate -- just kidding: you get an "A" (and chocolate!) for attending!

You blew your chocolate budget — again. Your bar stash is overflowing, your chocolate certifications keep stacking, and you can't stop talking about craft chocolate to anyone who'll listen. But the idea of turning that knowledge into a side hustle or business feels like a pipe dream. Could you really get paid for your chocolate knowledge?

In this session, you'll discover who is actively booking chocolate experiences right now, why the age of AI is the best time to be a human curator, and the one framework that gives you the confidence to start: find your client before you build your offer. You'll walk away knowing exactly what a bookable tasting looks like, what to charge, and your first realistic path to a paying client.

How to pair chocolate with different drinks and other foods - beginner talk with basic tips on how to approach chocolate pairings with examples.

Islands Chocolate is one of the speciality drinking chocolate companies asking baristas to step up their game of their chocolate drinks. Based on my experience at Islands, and our recent collaboration with Semilla Escuela Cacao, Cacao Bisiesto, and Coffee by TATE (the roastery of the most famous modern and contemporary art institution and museum in the UK who focuses on empowering women across the coffee and now cocoa supply chains), I would like to showcase how drinking chocolate with the right sourcing, messaging, and flavour could be the driver for the future of chocolate. Ideally, the audience should takeaway that we need to use the langauge, knowledge, and curiosity that characterises people in the coffee scene, and work alongside coffee proffesionals to elevate the world of crraft chocolate from the cafe. At the same time, hopefully this presentation will spotlight what is happening in the UK chocolate movement. 

They say that cacao can only grow on Equatorial farms. Nate Saal, an avid gardener and chocolate-tech entrepreneur, wanted to see if he could grow cacao in northern California and get it to fruit. Learn about the challenges and successes of growing cacao trees in cold weather climates. From germinating cacao seeds to hand pollinating cacao flowers, learn what it takes to grow your own single-origin chocolate.