hot chocolate festival

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How sweet it is!

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Sweet food industry friends, sweet flavours, and sweet essential funding for Growing Chefs.

Warm thanks to the Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival for adding something oh-so-sweet to our winter. The Hot Chocolate Festival runs annually from January 15th to February 14th, highlights the skills and creativity of local restaurants, cafés, bakeries and chocolatiers, and raises essential funds for charities like us. The 2023 festival was as sweet as ever! 

Thank you to the patrons who purchased a hot chocolate—you not only supported a local business, but raised funds Growing Chefs! To all the businesses that participated, you knocked our socks off with your new flavours, skill, and generous donations. Thank you!

We can’t wait to see what sweetness is in store for 2024.

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You Warmed up our Winter!

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The 2022 Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival has come to a close, but at Growing Chefs we are still feeling the warmth. This festival highlights the skills and creativity of local restaurants, cafés, bakeries and chocolatiers, and also helps raise funds for charities like us. The donations we received will help B.C. kids build connections to their food, the earth, local food systems, and with one another. Thank you to all the businesses that participated and to all the patrons that purchased a tasty hot chocolate. We are already excited to see what flavours are featured at next year’s festival!

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Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival

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We’re writing to amplify the 11th Annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival run by City Food Magazine! Vancouver’s best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, gelato, and ice cream makers are coming together, again, to create delectable hot chocolates to warm your bodies and cheer up your soul during Vancouver’s’ damp and gloomy Winter.

Growing Chefs Hot Chocolate Festival.jpg

The initiative started in 2011 and was the first city-wide initiative in the world to use the hot chocolate beverage as a way to support small, local businesses. The initiative also donates a portion of proceeds to three charitable partners, including Growing Chefs; The Downtown Eastside Women’s Job Training Program of the PHS COMMUNITY SERVICES SOCIETY - run by East Vancouver Roasters; and Fresh to Families - Farmers Market Nutrition Coupon Program for low-income families, run by Vancouver Farmer Markets. This past year has been especially hard on local businesses and the Hot Chocolate Festival has allowed donations to their charitable partners to be optional for 2021.

The Hot Chocolate Festival encourages all participants to follow covid-19 safety protocols. And has modified the festival to respect BC Health Authority rules and regulations, including encouraging social distancing, mask-wearing, and offering takeout options. Some vendors will also be offering DIY hot chocolate kits that you may purchase to take home or mail to friends who will not be with you this year.  For a full list of covid-19 measures, click here.

If drinking hot chocolate isn’t sweet enough, the Hot Chocolate Festival will also be having a photo contest on Instagram with $975 in gift certificate prizes available from participating vendors. You could be enjoying sweet treats for months to come if you win. For details on the contest, click here.  

Our Growing Chefs team members and volunteers will be making their way across Vancouver, Burnaby, and White Rock to try a few of the hot chocolate creations. Stay tuned on our Instagram for updates on what we try!

Thank you to all the vendors who are participating in the festival. For a list of vendors and flavors, click here. And for a virtual map of vendors, click here. 

We’d also like to extend a big thank you to Daily Hive, BC Food + Wine Radio, Made in Print, and Vancouver Farmers Markets for sponsoring the festival.

And of course, a huge thank you to City Food Magazine for putting on the Hot Chocolate Festival and including Growing Chefs as a charitable partner for the 4th year. We’re so grateful.

List Of Vendors

Click on vendor names for a link to their available flavours.
🌱plant-based options available