2026 Festival Tickets & Schedule
Schedule
Workshop & Speaker details below!
From Farm to Flavor: Discover Where Chocolate Begins
Dates & Time
Friday, November 6th VIP Night, 6:00-8:00 pm
Saturday, November 7th, 9:00-5:00 pm
Love Community Center
Rushville, Indiana
Two days, two ways to experience the festival:
1) Friday Night Chocolate Experience - VIP Preview: Taste - Explore - Discover
See the Friday Experience Details below!
2) Saturday: All-ages festival with vendor tastings, classes and family fun. Just $10 for adult entry; kids 12 & above are $5, kids age 11 and under are free! Entry includes chocolate samples & classes.
Your General Admission ticket includes:
Access to all tasting tables.
Free chocolate-themed speakers & classes throughout the day!
🍫 Taste your way through an incredible range of artisan chocolates.
🌱 Touch a fresh cacao pod and meet the people behind the bean.
🎓 Learn the secrets of chocolate making in engaging, hands-on sessions.
🧒 Kid-friendly fun! Visit the Children’s Activity Center for crafts, play, and chocolate-themed activities all day long.
🛍️ Shop your favorites and support small-batch makers from around the world.
Grab an Early Bird ticket while they last — and experience chocolate like never before.
FRIDAY DETAILS:
Your Friday Night Chocolate Experience includes:
Guided wine, bourbon & chocolate pairings
Tea & chocolate pairing experience
Find Your Chocolate Match: taste with an expert and discover which chocolate styles fit you best
Taste freshly-made liquid chocolate, straight from the stone grinder
Regional Bar Challenge: vote for the People's Choice Award. Taste special-edition bars from 12 makers around the world!. Each chef started with the same recipe but added an ingredient from their region. Vote for your favorite!
Learn how you can make chocolate at home
Meet the makers & cacao farmers behind what you are tasting
Come curious, taste something new, and spend an evening experiencing chocolate—not just eating it.
Make a night of it in Rushville: At 8 PM, pianist & composer Cristiana Pegoraro performs at the historic Princess Theatre downtown.
Buy the festival & concert package: Experience the festival Friday from 6-8 pm, then head downtown to continue your evening at the Princess Theatre.
Wine & bourbon available to guests 21+. Food truck on site.
Friday VIP tickets also include free all-day Saturday access to shop your favorites!
-All proceeds from Friday VIP tickets benefit the Love Community Center-
From Farm to Flavor: Discover Where Chocolate Begins
Saturday Program Schedule:
10:00-10:45 Inside Apoy Benit’s Award-Winning Filipino Cacao Farm: A Story of Excellence, by Ronee de Guzman, Cacao, Coffee & Tea
Take a trip to the Philippines with certified chocolate educator Ronee de Guzman as he shares his visit to Apoy Benit’s award-winning cacao farm. Through his experience on the farm, Ronee will give us a closer look at how cacao is grown, the people and practices behind it, and what makes this farm stand out.
11:00-11:45 Keep Growing: Adapting Old Family Farms to the New Generation
by Leila Carvajal Erker, CocoaSupply
How can generations-old cacao farms continue to thrive in a changing world? Born and raised in Ecuador in a multigenerational cacao family, Leila Carvajal Erker shares how cacao families are finding new ways to build on their agricultural traditions through agritourism, innovation, and new approaches to farming.
1:00-1:45 Unwrapping the Botany of Cacao by Karla Schade
The fruit of the Cacao tree is one of the most prominent indigenous contributions of the New World to today's global food economy. But often not much is known about the plant that it comes from. Come on a journey as we learn about this amazing plant and the miraculous steps it went through to become chocolate in your hands.
2:00-2:45 A Honduran Farmer’s Journey from Cacao to Award-winning Chocolate by Elmer Pineda, Yojoa Chocolate
For Elmer Pineda, chocolate begins on the farm. In Honduras, he grows cacao alongside fruits and other crops, then turns what he harvests into award-winning chocolate. Elmer will share his journey from farmer to chocolate maker and how ingredients grown on his own farm inspire the flavors and inclusions in his bars.
3:00-3:45 "Cocoa Ecotourism, an Under-Explored Opportunity: How Can We Leverage Technology? by Nana Aduna, Ohene Cocoa.
What happens when a cocoa farm becomes a destination as well as a place to grow cacao? Nana Aduna offers visitors a firsthand look at cocoa farming on his farm in Ghana, along with the chance to experience chocolate at its source. He’ll share how cocoa ecotourism can connect visitors more closely with farmers—and how technology could help farms like his reach more people.
Saturday Workshops:
9:30-10:30 Holiday Time Eats, Treats and Chocolate! By Kim Galeaz, Galeaz Food & Nutrition Communications
10:30-11:30 The Art of Chocolate: A Hand-Painting Class by Denise Steele, Lohcally Artisan Chocolates.
11:30-12:30 Tasting Chocolate History: Origin of Chocolate in South and Central America
Explore chocolate and learn the history of cacao from the first archeological evidence 4,500 year ago to today. Taste how 4 different origin chocolate makers are preserving cacao. Brook Johnson, Yahara Chocolate
12:30-1:30 Conscious Consuming by Susan Brown, Mademoiselle Mie
1:30-2:30 Holiday Time Eats, Treats and Chocolate! By Kim Galeaz, Galeaz Food & Nutrition Communications
2:30- 3:30 Leaf and Pod: An Artisan Tea and Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Experience by Ronee Guzman, Cacao, Coffee & Tea
3:30-4:30 You Can Make Chocolate at Home! By Bhavani, DCM
Ever wondered if you could make your own chocolate? Bhavani from DCM will show how small tabletop chocolate grinders make it possible to turn cacao into chocolate right in your own kitchen. Learn what you need to get started, how the process works, and what you can create at home. Works for homemade nut butters, too!
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