2026 NJ Chocolate Expo

On March 7th, 2026, Josephine and I visited the New Jersey Chocolate Expo at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, NJ. This was our second time visiting the New Jersey Convention and Exposition center, and it will most likely not be our last time considering that we had a great time at this event, and there is another food expo happening soon.

Upon entry, we showed our tickets that we purchased online, and we were greeted by many booths with chocolates and sweets from all over the world. We were mainly at the expo trying out a wide variety of chocolate and desserts, but they were two big surprises for us. The first major surprise was that there were many other types of food instead of chocolate, and many famous actors and actresses were present at the event.

We saw Julie Dawn Cole, Paris, Sandman and Rusty Goffe from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Anson Williams and Don Most from the TV show Happy Days, and Alley Mills from General Hospital. I’ve never watched the TV shows General Hospital or Happy Days, but I thought it was interesting seeing these special guests speak at the event. However, I’ve been watching the movie Willy Wonka, and the Chocolate Factory my entire life, and I was ecstatic to see some of the cast in person. All guests could pay $40 for a picture with the actors or actresses or $60 for a picture and autograph. We ended up not going for an autograph and picture since we thought it was too expensive, but it was still neat seeing everyone in person.

Believe it or not, although it was nice sampling many different types of desserts, our favorite foods we sampled at the expo were the pickles and sauces. One booth had Tommy’s Pickles which were chopped up pickles, or you can get a pickle on a stick. However, my favorite part of this booth was the pickle shots. You could either purchase a pickle shot of pickle juice for a dollar, or you could get a complementary shot if you ordered anything else from the menu. Another booth that I must highlight that isn’t related to desserts was the Jersey Barnfire Hot Sauces. I sampled the Garden State Green Sauce and ended up buying a bottle. It was delicious and I loved adding it whenever I made eggs for breakfast in the following weeks. Finally, we purchased some Amogio Pesto Sauce and honey wax candles because we loved how they smelled and tasted. Although this is primarily a chocolate expo, don’t overlook the rest of the booths because we enjoyed those more than the chocolate.

Regarding the desserts we sampled, we ate a piece of bacon covered in chocolate, Canonica Chocolate, a piece of Rum cake, and Josephine bought some dark chocolate for her family.

All in all, I strongly recommend visiting the New Jersey Chocolate Expo to anyone who is interested in sampling chocolate from around the world, but surprisingly, in our opinion, the best parts of the expo were seeing the actors and actresses, as well as sampling the foods that were not chocolate. I’m looking forward to visiting the chocolate expo again next year for another wonderful experience, as well as other future expos that will happen at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center.