Good Gravy!
The Clay County Chocolate Gravy Festival Returns for Its Second Year
Whether you grew up with the tradition of warm chocolate gravy atop a fresh-from-the-oven homemade biscuit or are just now discovering this breakfast treat, you’ll want to point your compass to Celina, Tennessee, on March 28 for the Chocolate Gravy Festival.
Like any good origin story, there isn’t 1 definitive answer for how chocolate gravy came to be. Certainly, the resourcefulness of Appalachian cooks working with limited ingredients played a big role in its creation. Other storylines point to a connection with European-style drinking chocolate and a method to thicken chocolate puddings.
The South has a long, proud tradition of taking homemade biscuits to a higher level with sweet and savory toppings such as sorghum, molasses, sawmill gravy, and apple butter. So, when companies like Hershey’s began making cocoa widely available and affordable in the 1890s, it wasn’t long before Southern cooks found a new variation for topping those biscuits. “It makes sense that chocolate gravy would fit right in,” says Beverly Murphy, director of tourism for Clay County. “It is comforting, child-friendly, and can be made from common pantry ingredients and farm-fresh milk.”
Around Celina and other Appalachian communities, a family’s chocolate gravy recipe is a closely guarded secret—one seldom written down but instead passed down through generations by practice. Beverly recalls being taught how to make it by her grandparents when she was a little girl.
Recipes can vary from thick to thin and use different types of cocoa. Some are even gussied up with vanilla, cinnamon, or coffee. If your family doesn’t have a treasured recipe, you can look in cookbooks dating back to the mid-20th century, when chocolate gravy became a mainstay in church and community collections. Or, now with renewed interest from food bloggers and social media creators, an online search will result in several recipe options.
The Birth of a Festival
Branded festival merchandise, including the brown mug seen here, was a big hit at the 2025 event.
What does it take to create a festival from scratch? A hardworking team, endless dedication to the community, and, of course, funding.
The Clay County Tourism Committee formed and set a goal to create a festival to draw people to Celina and to bolster the local economy. “We decided years ago to have a Chocolate Gravy Festival,” Beverly says. “When we first started talking about it, it brought out so many stories and childhood memories. We knew it was the right thing for Celina.” After all, the gravy is proudly served at local restaurants, school lunchrooms, and kitchen tables.
To bring the event to life, the tourism committee turned to local and regional businesses, civic groups, and families. Committee members raised $11,000 in sponsorships and received the help of many volunteers.
The result was an amazing success. The first Chocolate Gravy Festival drew an estimated crowd of 5,000 attendees to a close-knit town where the population is less than 1,500. Those who came were able to experience something nostalgic and fun. “It was like a mix of a food fair, a homecoming, and a street festival,” Beverly says. “Many people told me it was their first visit to Celina. That’s a big win!”
In addition to the multiple versions of chocolate gravy to taste, attendees were treated to live music, vendors, demonstrations, and kids’ activities. Proud cooks entered contests hoping to win top prizes for their chocolate gravy, chocolate pies, and biscuits. A crowd favorite was the chocolate gravy-eating contest.
Sheila Gaw smiles with her first-place finish in the chocolate gravy contest.
During the event and in the days to follow, social media posts from the tourism office and attendees showed the experience and the crowds and helped generate excitement for the 2026 festival.
What to Expect For 2026
Participants eat as many bowls of the sweet sauce as they can during the allotted time in the chocolate gravy-eating contest.
Whether you come to revisit a fond childhood breakfast memory or for your first bite of a warm buttered biscuit covered with this magical concoction, Beverly says the hope is that the 2026 festival will be even better than last year’s inaugural celebration.
“We will be welcoming more vendors, and contestants will be serving up more varieties of chocolate gravy,” she says. “We learned from last year and will have a larger festival area downtown as well as more seating.” Other changes will include classic cars and motorcycles, Appalachian clogging and dance performances, and an expanded kids’ area.