Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival 2025 Preview

The second annual Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival will take place November 21-22, 2025, in the beautiful small town of Rushville, Indiana. I am privileged to be involved for the second straight year, and I want to share the vendors and exhibitors you can look forward to at this year’s festival, as well as what Bean to Barstool will have available at our booth and the presentations I’ll be giving.

Exhibitors:
Cacaitos Fine Cacao
Cacao y Mas Cacao
Chocolat Café
Chocolate Thunder
Chocs ‘n Boxes
Cocoa Supply (listen to my interviews with Leila at Cocoa Supply here and here)
Cocoatown
Codice Cacao
Éka Malagasy Handcrafted Chocolate
Embers Chocolate (listen to my interview with Tandy Peterson here, and definitely grab their excellent bars!)
Encore Coffee & Chocolate (their coffee chocolate bars are amazing)
Fjorden Sjokolade
Fusion Epicure
Heirloom Cacao Preservation
Institute for Cacao and Chocolate Research
Kemu Farms (learn more about Kemu here)
KESSHŌ Craft Chocolate
Lohcally Artisan Chocolates
Mademoiselle Miel
Maverick Chocolate
Oscar Odolfo Chocolatier
Peace on Fifth (London will have some AMAZING and rare bars available, so makes tracks for her booth)
Red Rock Chocolate
Small Batch Education
Sweet Bean Chocolate
Sweets Escalier
Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop
Yojoa Handcrafted Chocolate (excellent tree to bar Honduran chocolate)

Presentations & Special Events:
9:00 a.m. (all day) - CocoaTown - Live Bean-to-Bar Demo: How Craft Chocolate Is Made!
9:30 a.m. - Andal Balu, CocoaTown—You Can Make Chocolate at Home!
9:30 a.m. - Elmer Pineda, Yojoa Handcrafted Chocolate—A Honduran Farmer's Journey from Cacao to Award-winning Chocolate
10:30 a.m. - David Nilsen, Bean to Barstool—Ticketed Tasting—Beer & Spirits-Infused Craft Chocolate Tasting (add-on ticket required)
10:30 a.m. - Kimberly Galaez, Galaez Food & Nurtition Communications—Chocolate for Your Health and Happiness
10:30 a.m. - César García, Codice Chocolate—Cacao Use in Mesoamerica
10:30 a.m. - Leila Carvajal Erker, Cocoa Supply—It All Started with the Farm: A Generational Cacao Story Rooted in Ecuadorian Soil
11:30 a.m. - Denise Steele, Lohcally Artisan Chocolate—Edible Masterpieces, Creating Hand-Painted Art
11:30 a.m. - Clay Gordon, The Chocolate Life—Ask Me Anything! Sponsored by Joyner Homes
11:30 a.m. - Liang Wang, KESSHŌ Chocolate—Serious crafting for casual enjoyment - the KESSHŌ way of making bean to bar Asian-inspired inclusion chocolates
12:30 p.m. - Connor Tierney, Chocolate Thunder—Taste the World with Chocolate Thunder
12:30 p.m. - Sailyn Dean, Chocs N Boxes—Crafting Award-Winning Bonbons & Truffles
12:30 p.m. - Karla Schade, Opening Chocolate—Before the Bar: The Plant Behind Your Chocolate
12:30 p.m. - David Nilsen, Bean to Barstool—From Bean to Barstool and Back: Collaboration and Commonality Between Chocolate, Beer & Spirits
1:30 p.m. - Kimberly Galaez, Galaez Food & Nutrition—Chocolate for Your Health and Happiness
1:30 p.m. - Susan Brown, Mademoiselle Miel—Food Wisdom and the Honey Bee
1:30 p.m. - Kjell Inge Vestre, Fjorden Sjokolade—From Fjords to Flavor: Enjoying Chocolate from Nordic Bean-to-Bar Makers
2:30 p.m. - Nettie Atkisson, Small Batch Education—The Chocolate Trail: From Rainforest to Royal Courts
2:30 p.m. - César Aguilar, Cacaitos—From Farm to You, Tasting Fine Cacao from Colombia
2:30 p.m. - London Coe, Peace on Fifth—Ya Got it all Wrong: Expanding Past Our Chocolate Nostalgia
3:30 p.m. - Fanjaniaina Fawbush, Eka Chocolate—Madagascar Chocolate: The Farmers, the Land, and the Flavors We Grow
3:30 p.m. - Jacob Potter, Red Rock Chocolate—Melt Away Stress: A Chocolate Meditation
4:30 p.m. - Andal Balu, CocoaTown—You Can Make Chocolate at Home!
4:30 p.m. - Leila Carvajal Erker, Cocoa Supply—Closing Reflections: From Farms to Future, Your Chocolate Journey Continues

Available for purchase at the Bean to Barstool booth:
- My book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer & Craft Chocolate Together
(I can also sign copies if desired!)
- Chocolate & Cacao photography prints & cards
- Craft chocolate bars made with beer, spirits, or related ingredients, including bars by:
—Somerville Chocolate
—River-Sea Chocolate
—Violet Sky Chocolate
—Piety & Desire Chocolate

My presentations:
From Bean to Barstool and Back—Craft chocolate has much in common with artisan beverage segments like craft beer and small batch spirits, and we’re seeing more and more collaborations between the two. Chocolate makers, brewers, distillers, and other beverage alcohol producers are all looking for ways to court new customers and explore new flavors, and collaboration provides a way to use unique ingredients while reaching a new group of fans.

In this presentation, David will look at trends in collaboration between craft chocolate makers, brewers, distillers, and wine makers. He'll talk about what craft chocolate makers have in common with beverage alcohol producers and provide examples of common products, processes, and ingredients.

Beer & Spirits-Infused Craft Chocolate Tasting—During this 1 hour event, David will walk attendees through a tasting of 5 craft chocolate bars that were made with craft beer, beer ingredients, or artisan spirits or spirit barrels.

Along the way, David will discuss the specific ingredients used, how they were utilized to create each bar's unique flavors, and profile the chocolate makers and the breweries or other artisan beverage makers they worked with.

This fun and educational event will help attendees learn about these indulgent treats in a non-intimidating format.

Let me know what you’re most excited about at the festival. I hope to see you there!