Hi, I’m Laurenne.
And I Blame the Chocolate Aisle.
It started the way it does for a lot of people — standing in the grocery store, staring at a wall of chocolate bars, wondering what the difference actually was between all of them. Most people move on. I started buying more bars.
What began as a slightly embarrassing grocery habit turned into a full-blown obsession with chocolate — where it comes from, how it's made, and why two bars with identical cacao percentages can taste like completely different worlds. Eventually I decided to stop pretending this was a casual interest and do something about it.
The Credentials – To Justify All the Chocolate
In 2024 I earned my Level 2 certification through the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICCT) — the only formally credentialed chocolate tasting program.
The IICCT program is to chocolate what the WSET is to wine. It's a rigorous, structured curriculum that trains your palate to evaluate cacao and chocolate at a professional level — covering sensory analysis, flavor development, origin characteristics, fermentation and processing, and how all of it ends up in the bar you're holding. Level 2 goes deep. You don't just learn to say "this tastes fruity." You learn why it tastes fruity, and what that tells you about everything that happened before it reached your hands.
I was also a featured guest at the Portland Craft Chocolate Festival.
Here's the thing I want you to know before anything else: I will never make you feel bad about what you like.
Love a Snickers? Great. Eat it with joy. My job isn't to convince you that everything you've ever liked is wrong — it's to open a door and show you there's more on the other side if you want it. Craft chocolate isn't about snobbery. It's about curiosity.
I simply want to invite more people into a world I find endlessly fascinating, so they can discover more of what they love. Where that takes you is entirely up to you.
My Philosophy
I host guided tastings for corporate teams, private groups, and venue events — experiences designed to be equal parts education and genuine fun.
I also create resources for chocolate lovers at every level, from people just getting off grocery store brands to enthusiasts who want to taste with more intention and depth.
If any of that sounds like your kind of thing, you're in the right place.