Business is sweet for chocolate sommelier

Roxanne Browning directed her small audience to rub the square of chocolate, take a whiff of its aroma and then bite, making sure to hit all of the tongue's taste zones.

"We're going to go all over the world with these chocolates," Browning informed the group of 14 who had gathered for a chocolate and wine pairing event at the Vine Wine Bar in Bellmore. "We're going to be on a journey, a palate-pleasing adventure."

Browning, 55, a chocolate sommelier, speaks of chocolate in terms usually associated with wine, describing the different cacao varietals and blends, and the terroir, or the soil, location and climate in which they grow. Part entertainment and part education, her Web-based company, Exotic Chocolate Tasting, is on a mission to illuminate the nuances and complexities of artisan chocolate's flavors and at the same time tell the stories of the cacao farmers and the artisans who produce chocolate using fair labor practices and environmentally friendly methods.

Trip to Ecuador

For Browning that journey has become more than the simple recounting of a narrative. In June she traveled to Ecuador's Amazon rain forest and stayed with the Kichwa natives of the Kallari cooperative to harvest cacao, observe their production process and see how their business structure allows them a viable alternative to selling their land to logging and oil interests. Now she has teamed up with veteran travel agent Marsha Stone-Hausman, owner of Lin-Mar Travel Associates Inc., in Patchogue, to offer various tour packages to visit the Kallari cooperative.

"Without a doubt there's a market for this," said Stone-Hausman, whose appointment-only business has already received several inquiries about the tours. "First of all, people are interested in the ecology of the area and maintaining the green movement; you can help people raise their standard of living without leaving anything behind that doesn't belong there; people are always looking for different things to do and everybody eats chocolate."

Browning, who lives in Northport where she was once mayor, initially envisioned for herself a business photographing artisan chocolate -- and then eating it. But she discovered her chocolate passion gave her a platform to express other interests.

"Politics was rewarding because of the environmental issues I was interested in," Browning said. "I had no idea that chocolate would lead me to these environmental issues."

At a chocolate show she met artisans who shared their personal stories and the differences between the cacao they use and the almost flavorless beans used in commercial mass-produced chocolate, she said. She also learned about the child labor problems plaguing cacao farms in West Africa, where most of the world's cacao is produced.

Sustainable cooperative

Browning eventually met Judy Logback, the U.S. representative for the Kallari Association. The cooperative of 900 families has found a sustainable income growing, harvesting and selling heirloom cacao varietals without middlemen and making organic chocolate bars.

"They were especially excited about hosting Roxanne, since she is involved in helping people learn how to enjoy (instead of just consume) chocolate," Logback said in an email.

Browning spent 10 days living with a Kichwa family in a thatched-roof house that had no running water or electricity. She pulled cacao pods off trees surrounded by hardwoods, plantains, bananas and other vegetation -- diverse natural habitat critical to the beans' flavor, she said.

"The whole idea is to bring awareness," Browning said.

Of course, that awareness is packaged in fun. Her company, Exotic Chocolate Tasting, offers tastings of chocolate and chocolate paired with wine, at restaurants, wine bars, vineyards and at corporate and charity events. In almost two years, some 4,500 people have attended her chocolate tasting events, Browning said. Four pairings of chocolate and wine typically cost about $30 per person.

Two that go together

For many at the Vine Wine Bar wine and chocolate pairing, Browning's presentation with Gennaro D'Orsi, a sales consultant from Astoria-based wine distributor Empire Merchants, was a revelation.

"I thought it was a gimmick, but it's amazing how much better wine tastes with chocolate," said Marc Hacker, 42, of Plainview, who, with his wife, attended the tasting. "It removed the acidity and made it smoother and sweeter. We were joking that we now can't have wine without chocolate."