It was a sweet weekend at the Paris Fairgrounds, where the Chocolate and Wine Fest was held on Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24, 2025.
Hosted by KB Events Canada, the Chocolate and Wine Fest offered shopping from more than 90 vendors, along with workshops and activities for wine and chocolate lovers.
Chocolate vendors could be found along the ‘chocolate lane’, selling everything from chocolate pudding to edible bouquets to decadent chocolate cookies.
Down ‘winery way,’ vendors offered samples and a variety of wines, along with many more vendors selling food and craft items.
Annette Savoie-Polyak, owner of Brantford business Le Chocolat du Savoie, had a booth in the chocolate section, selling Belgian chocolate, licorice, marshmallow pretzels, peanut butter cups, sea salt toffee and more.
Savoie-Polyak described the event as “very busy” and “a lot of fun,” and said that she’d met a lot of new people that day, some from as far as Sarnia and Toronto.
On Saturday, Le Chocolat du Savoie and Herndor Estates Wines partnered together for a workshop. Participants got to try three wine tastings paired with four pieces of Belgian chocolate.
“We have Easter coming up, so that’s a good way to connect with people today,” Savoie-Polyak said. “Building our future customers as well.”
Dalton White Farms, from nearby Delhi, was also there, selling six flavours of roasted specialty hazelnuts, chocolate truffles, and latte dust toppers. Owner Rebecca Compton said they try to keep everything “as local as possible.” That includes growing food on their three-acre farm, working with six other local farmers, and working with Altitude Coffee Roasters from Brantford for their espresso-flavoured hazelnuts.
Over the weekend, they offered samples of their roasted hazelnuts to festival-goers. “It’s been a great event,” Compton said. “Paris is always a wonderful town to come to, and people are always interested in buying local.”
That’s particularly true lately, with a looming tariff war and an increased desire from many to support Canadian products and businesses.
Good Pud is a dessert company out of Tillsonburg which makes pudding from local Ontario cream and chocolate imported from Belgium.
Owner Sarah Senior said that they’re increasingly finding people who are looking at where they’re sourcing their materials from.
“We love it at the moment, because everyone’s looking for really good local Canadian produce, and a lot of people don’t realize that really good chocolate desserts are being made right here in southwest Ontario,” Senior said.
That drive is especially important as chocolate makers have had to contend with a sharp increase in the price of chocolate in the last two years.
Earlier this year, CTV News reported that the price of cocoa hit a record high of US$12,646 per metric ton in December. It’s been the consequence of years of inclement weather in West Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa is produced. The spread of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease, which infects and usually kills cocoa trees, has also hurt production.
According to the U.S. Producer Price Index, the cost of manufacturing chocolate has increased by more than 167 per cent in the last two years. Several larger chocolate companies have been reformulating their products; this is why some of your favourite chocolates are now sold as chocolate-flavoured or chocolate candy, instead of actual chocolate. For smaller businesses, it’s harder to make that type of change, Senior said.
“When we first started with Good Pud, we were buying chocolate, like 20 kilos of chocolate for $253,” Senior said. “It’s now like $550, $600.”
“As a small business that makes chocolate dessert, it is just something that is chipping away at our margin every single time, and it’s just so hard to pass that on to a consumer, especially when it’s a treat or something you know that they’re buying occasionally,” Senior said.
“It’s just really difficult for smaller chocolate businesses at the moment,” Senior said. “So events like this are really valuable to us.”
