Karla Schade is a certified chocolate taster, international judge, and educator with a background in botany.  Her knowledge of plants and flavor informs a nuanced, sensory-driven approach to chocolate tasting. 

Through her work @openingchocolate, Karla combines formal education, judging experience, and botanical insight to make craft chocolate approachable, engaging, and deeply memorable.

Kim Wilson is the co-founder of Cocoa Future Collaborative, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering cacao origins by creating locally made cocoa products that significantly increase farming community incomes.

With a background spanning both corporate strategy and entrepreneurial ventures, Kim centers her work on building local economies through value-added processing, with a particular focus on gender equality and sustainable impact.

Born and raised in Ecuador and now based in the United States, Val is a cacao expert and passionate advocate for Mashpi Chocolate.

What began as a soil recovery project in Ecuador, evolved into a regenerative chocolate initiative rooted in healthy, ecosystems and exceptional quality. Her work focuses on cacao soil health and regenerative agriculture and she is dedicated to educating audiences on the vital connection between living soils resilient food systems and meaningful chocolate.

Sherrie Gavin is a PhD Candidate in Feminist Food Studies at the University of New England, Australia. Her research interests focus on interdisciplinary studies specific to women, religion, food, and culture. Her passion is in examining feminist food studies within distinct cultures, subcultures, applying broader explorations of cultural phenomena. These applications intersect with pop culture representations of women, religion, and food within historical landscapes.

Having completed her undergraduate degree at Southern Utah University in analyzing the socioeconomic perspectives of the American Civil War, her graduate research is inclusive of religious food practices, culinary pop culture, and the significance of food in society. She was recently the keynote speaker in the London Calling conference, where she analyzed the socio-historical place of potatoes in English culture and pop culture.  

London Coe is the pioneering chocolate buyer of Peace on Fifth, an ethically sourced fairly traded traceable heirloom craft chocolate from across the globe space in Dayton Ohio, which launched in 2011. By prioritizing makers that are BIPOC, AAPI, farmers, and women from across the global south, her work has been broadening the conversation about human trafficking in chocolate and driving slavery out of chocolate.

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At her core, the compassionate commerce store builds relationships and creates revenue streams that change the DNA of families from seeing their children as livestock to sell into pride pieces to cherish.  London makes it easy to save the world by changing the chocolate we buy.  And what a delicious way to save the world.

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​London invites you to an intentional tasting practice where flavor becomes a language of presence, place, and devotion. Her method drives us to appreciate anew single origin bean to bar craft chocolate by exploring how chocolate awakens the senses, deepens awareness, and can be a conduit of pleasure, presence, and connection: with the self, the maker, and the land that shapes the chocolate we love.

JennyLicious Chocolate 

Jenny has been a chocolate aficionado from a very young age. From enjoying original Cadbury Chocolate in England and Lindt Chocolate in Switzerland to taking a Chocolate class in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2018 she learned the nuances of exceptional chocolate. 

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She has enjoyed many chocolate tastings, chocolate classes, and several factory tours. 

Jenny now makes her own bean to bar craft chocolate sourcing her beans from fair trade suppliers. 

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Jenny’s chocolate has been featured multiple times at Utah Chocolate Society tastings and events. She currently heads a committee for aspiring chocolate makers for the Society. 

An Ecole Chocolat “Chocolate Making from the Bean” graduate, with honors, ignited her passion for expanding her own fine craft chocolate business. 

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Enjoy her many cacao origin options. 

Find her on Instagram at @JennyLiciouschocolate

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