How did you get into chocolate?
I’ve always loved chocolate but I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be making it! I was actually studying to be a doctor, and three years into it realized the power of nutrition and preventative medicine. I decided to enroll at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to become a holistic health counselor and focus on diet, nutrition, wellbeing, etc. Generally, my clients would eat well until around 3 P.M. Then they started eating sugar and their dietary choices declined from there. I decided to start making chocolate for my clients that was free of sugar and any unhealthy ingredients and that was filled with herbs, supplements, and various superfoods so they could indulge in chocolate with added nutrients and health benefits. The best part is that they didn’t have to feel guilty about enjoying their treats — and they felt significant changes in their health as a result of eating chocolate!

How did you decide to start a chocolate business?
Our company grew 100% through word-of-mouth. I was making chocolate for my clients and the other graduates from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, when more and more people started contacting me to purchase chocolate. Then came the small independent stores, and then even Whole Foods called to carry my chocolate! So it just organically grew into a business without any investors, partners, start up funds, marketing, advertising, or a sales force. The fact that our customers are demanding their stores carry our chocolate says a lot about what consumers are looking for now: a higher quality, higher integrity product!

Were you trained in making chocolate or do you experiment?
I don’t have any training as a chocolate maker — I’ve learned everything on my own. I have always loved to cook — the Food Network was my favorite channel growing up! The very first batches of chocolate I made were a huge hit with my clients and classmates, and there have not been significant changes to the recipes since those first batches. Two years into chocolate making, I hired a classically trained chocolatier who studied with Valhrona. She left Per Se to work for Gnosis! We develop new products together and it’s a great synergy because her technique mixed with my passion for quirky, exotic combinations of ingredients created an exciting collaboration!

Explain the “raw” concept.
A raw carrot versus a canned carrot — which would you think has more vitality and nutrition? It’s the same thing with chocolate—or any food for that matter. The idea is to keep your food as close to how it was grown, how it was intended by nature. The more you process food, the more you lose its antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and the integrity of the molecular structures. The definition of raw food is food that has not been heated over 118 degrees. The health benefits are endless. In chocolate, the saddest part is that you lose those antioxidants and neurotransmitters that are so beneficial to our health and mood! Also, caffeine is very affected by heat so when the chocolate is raw, the caffeine (which is actually barely present in our bars doesn’t have the same effect on your system as heated chocolate. So I like to incorporate as much raw food into my diet as possible.

How do you choose your flavors?
My inspiration starts with function. Our products aren’t meant to just taste good — yes of course they are decadent and our flavor combinations take from my Italian mother and my eternal love for dynamic synergies on the tongue. But our products are meant to produce a beneficial experience of function by incorporating herbs and superfoods used in Ayurvedic Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and South American Medicine. So I become inspired to create a bar that has all the herbs from these preventative medicines for a certain function — for example our Immune Boost bar has ingredients like Echinacea and Elderberry — and then we’ve added ingredients that have a high amount of Vitamin A, C, and Zinc like persimmons, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. Because I was inspired to create this bar for the flu season, we complimented it with flavors of the fall like pecans, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. There are many companies who create flavors for flavor — we create flavors for function!

Do you enjoy cooking or do you stick to chocolate?
I really do love it. I was considering culinary school before I went into my PreMed and nutrition studies — and I’ve been a personal chef on Nantucket, and I’ve done some corporate lunches as well. So I certainly have a passion for preparing food and I make everything from raw key lime tartlets to pasta with artichokes and shallots! I love to cook — or “uncook” when I’m making raw dishes!

What’s an interesting pairing of chocolate that you wouldn’t expect?
What isn’t interesting? All of our recipes are exotic — we use over 50 herbs that you’ll not find in any other chocolate bar on the shelf. For example, we make an Aphrodisia Bar with Horny Goat Weed, Shilajit, Damiana, Dong Quai, and Maca in our Aphrodisia Bar, which also has figs, raspberries, and is sweetened with coconut palm nectar — a low glycemic sweetener from the nectar of coconut tree blossoms! If you’re looking for a brain booster, my original recipe — SuperChoc — has things like blue-green algae, Gingko Biloba, Siberian Ginseng, Gotu Kola to oxygenate and clear the brain!

What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?
Do you have children or siblings? Who is your favorite?