About Us

”Winter is not a season. It’s a celebration with hot chocolate in hand.“

The World’s Original Hot Chocolate Festival Returns!

When it was conceived in 2010, the Hot Chocolate Festival was the first and only city-wide initiative of its kind in the world. This January, we continue to bring you the best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, gelato and ice cream makers from 20 different regions in British Columbia — all coming together to make the humble hot chocolate hotter than it has ever been before.

In the damp and gloomy days of our West Coast winter, you’ll find our motto to be true: “Chocolate Makes You Happy!”

Explore Festival Vendors

About Our Producer - CityFood Events

This initiative to support small business in British Columbia is a project of CityFood Media.

The company’s first property, CityFood Magazine, was published in Canada in 1992 and was the first independent newsprint publication to focus on the country’s emerging food and beverage scene. Today the CityFood brand continues to cover this vital and dynamic industry via an expanded group of platforms: digital, social media, and innovative community projects such as The Hot Chocolate Festival.

Our Charity Partners

A portion of all Festival proceeds will be donated to the following local organizations.

Fresh to Families

Help local families buy nutrition dense food with dignity & sense of community, at the farmer’s markets, where 100% of dollar value goes back to BC farmers.

Donate here for a more Sustainable Food System. With different Donation Tiers, supporting families is Simple and Impactful

Choose the donation tier based on what you can give or support this program with your network:

$30 helps bring a family to the market once
$120 supports a family for an entire month
$600 brings a family to the market for the whole season
$1,200 gives two families the gift of fresh food for an entire season

Fresh to Families is an extension of BCAFM’s province-wide nutrition coupon program, making a tangible impact by supporting families with coupons that can be redeemed directly with local farmers markets’ vendors to purchase fresh, local food. This provides local families access to nourishment while keeping funds within the local economy, offering a reliable income stream for BC farmers.

Donations over $20 are eligible for a charitable tax receipt via Vancity Foundation.

Growing Chefs

Growing Chefs is where kids’ connection to food takes root. Too many kids, youth, and teens don’t know where food comes from or have access to nourishing, culturally relevant foods. We’re on a mission to change that.

Our programs:

empower kids and connect communities through food.
increases accessibility to nourishing and culturally relevant foods.
supports a just and thriving food system.
improves the health, education, and social experience of kids and youth.

Read more about our programs and donate today to bring edible education to local kids. Growing Chefs Society is a registered Canadian charity.

Our Community Focus

One of the Festival’s important mandates is to give back to our communities. Not just by supporting the independent vendors who keep our retail lively and unique but also by enabling them to support the small, local charities whose work they believe in. When you buy a featured Festival hot chocolate at one of these vendors you’ll be helping them to help others.

Vancouver Fruit Tree Project

A grassroots organization on a mission to strengthen Vancouver’s food security by harvesting backyard fruit trees and delivering to organizations serving members in our community who have reduced access to fresh produce.

Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre

Through education, advocacy, and collective action, Salal offers free, anti-oppressive, intersectional feminist, decolonizing support to survivors of sexualized violence.

Covenant House Vancouver

Covenant House Vancouver is a non-profit organization that provides support to young people, age 16–24, who are experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, youth who are experiencing human trafficking, and youth in need.

BC SPCA

BC SPCA’s mission is protecting vulnerable animals and mobilizing communities so animals and people thrive together.

The People's Pantry

The People’s Pantry Food Recovery Society builds bridges between food retailers and producers faced with excess food and people faced with food insecurity.

La Boussole

La Boussole is a charitable organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged francophones in Greater Vancouver. Through a comprehensive range of services and activities, the community centre welcomes, accompanies and guides people according to their needs, and facilitates their social integration.

posAbilities

posAbilities supports children and adults who have intellectual/developmental disabilities — and their families — to live good and full lives in the community. Services are person-centred and can change over time with the unique needs of the individual.

Access Youth Outreach Services

As a grass-roots organization, Access Youth’s mandate includes the development and delivery of innovative programs and services for youth ages 12-23 who may be disadvantaged, marginalized, or at-risk.

NaloxHome Society

NaloxHome provides youth with de-stigmatizing education on the signs of an overdose, stigma, naloxone, and how to keep each other safe. As a youth-led charity, NaloxHome is proud to be made up of young adults, eager to make a change and to end the stigma around harm reduction and people who use substances.

Battered Women's Support Services

Since 1979, BWSS has provided counselling and healing spaces for those who have experienced abuse. They provide education, advocacy, and support services to assist all women and girl survivors of violence and work to eliminate violence against women and girls.

Pacific Wild

Pacific Wild supports the protection of ecosystems that can sustain biodiversity throughout the Great Bear Rainforest & the northwest Pacific region.

Rainbow Refugee Society

Rainbow Refugee is a Vancouver-based organization that promotes safe, equitable migration and communities of belonging for people fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status.

Leash of Hope Assistance Dogs

Leash of Hope Assistance Dogs is a charitable organization founded in 2014 which trains rescue dogs for the purpose of assisting those with different disabilities. These dogs are taught in a way that best suits the dog’s natural abilities which than dictates the type of work the dog will go into. The overarching aim of these wonderful dogs and indeed, Leash of Hope is to provide independence beyond the disability.

Vancouver Foundation

Vancouver Foundation works with individuals, charities, and businesses to create endowment funds, most of which are permanent. Their mission is to bring together the wisdom and generosity of community to improve the lives of people living in BC in meaningful and lasting ways

The Treehouse Child and Youth Advocacy Centre

Treehouse Child and Youth Advocacy Centre is a safe, welcoming place where children and youth who have experienced abuse can be heard, supported, and cared for. Their goal is to help children who have experienced abuse get back to feeling like kids again.

Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House

The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House provides programming and educational, leadership, social, and recreational opportunities to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Double Bay Sanctuary Foundation

The Sanctuary provides a home for orcas that have been retired from their lives as performers in SeaWorld-type marine zoos. Too old to survive alone in the natural world they are welcomed and cared for here in this ecological, solar-powered facility.

Straight Outta Rescue

Straight Outta Rescue Society partners with volunteers, medical staff and fosters in our community to ensure the well-being of cats and dogs.

SAINT Rescue and Adoption

SAINT Rescue and Adoption is a no-kill organization run by volunteers to foster and nurture rescue cats until they are adopted.

Rabbitats Rescue Society

Rabbitats Rescue Society is a charity dedicated to rescuing abandoned domesticated and feral rabbits by providing shelter, veterinary services and adoption facilities.

Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association

VOKRA’s mission is to end cat overpopulation and homelessness. They rescue, heal, and home cats — first through their compassionate network of foster families, then into carefully matched, loving forever homes.

Backpack Buddies

Backpack Buddies partners with BC schools and every Friday, provides bags of kid-approved and ready-to-eat food for children to take home for the weekend.

Empower Through Music

Empower Through Music creates inclusive, empowering music education for neurodivergent and underserved youth so every child can learn, express themselves, and belong

Thank you to our Sponsors and Collaborators

Vancouver Farmers Markets

Established in 1995 as a non-profit society in British Columbia, Vancouver Farmers Markets has grown into one of the largest and most vibrant farmers market organizations in Canada. Vancouver Farmers Markets operate year round, with seven weekly summer markets and two weekly winter markets in neighbourhoods across Vancouver.

Visit our Winter Farmers Markets at:

Riley Park Winter Farmers Market – Nat Bailey Stadium – Saturdays (10 am to 2 pm)
Kitsilano Winter Farmers Market – Kitsilano Secondary School Parking – Sundays (10 am to 2 pm)

For more details about VFM, visit www.eatlocal.org

Dished Vancouver

Dished is Vancouver’s go-to source for the latest on restaurant openings, closures, and the best eats to satisfy every craving.

Follow along at dailyhive.com/vancouver/dished

Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

As a global gateway, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is committed to delivering an outstanding and seamless travel experience for all travellers, while serving the community and the economy that support it.

Welcoming an average of 80,000 travellers every day and offering 124 destinations in 2025, YVR is proud to connect British Columbia to the world.