Taste Fine Chocolate With...
Mary Luz Mejia
Discover what fine chocolate really tastes like.Hosted by Mary Luz Mejia,
Canada’s first IICCT Level III Certified Chocolate Taster, offering guided tastings that explore the flavour, craft, and origins of fine chocolate.Chocolate can taste like berries, honey, roasted nuts, or citrus depending on the cacao, fermentation, and how it's made. Discover a world of flavour through bean-to-bar, craft chocolate.
About Your Host
Mary Luz Mejia
Colombian-born, Canadian-raised Mary Luz Mejia is a twice-NATJA-nominated freelance food and travel journalist, a Gemini-nominated former food television producer, and Canada’s first Level III IICCT Certified Chocolate Taster. She has worked on the national marketing teams of two of Canada’s leading grocery retailers and has been published in various outlets, including Saveur, The Toronto Star, Dreamscapes Magazine, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Gateways Magazine, and The Globe & Mail. Based in Toronto, she offers sensory chocolate tastings, writes extensively about cacao and chocolate, and has a passion for fruity, nuanced dark chocolate. Her travels serve as both inspiration and research, each destination adding invaluable flavours to her ever-evolving sensory archive
What Is Fine Chocolate?
A World of Flavour
Most commercial chocolate is made for consistency. Fine chocolate is made for flavour.Just like wine, tea, or coffee, cacao has different varieties and grows in distinct regions. The way the beans are fermented, dried, roasted, and crafted can dramatically shape the final taste.During a tasting, we'll explore: how cacao origin affects flavour, why fermentation matters, how to taste chocolate like a professional taster, and what to look for when buying better chocolate.You’ll never taste a chocolate bar or bonbon the same way again.
Tastings & Events
Host Your Own or Join Me
I host guided chocolate tastings for groups of all kinds and they're customizable.Private Tastings
A relaxed, interactive tasting experience for friends or small groups. Can be at your home, studio or a professional setting.Corporate Events
A memorable alternative to wine tastings or team-building activities. Can include a spirit, wine, coffee or tea pairing.Wine Bars, Restaurants & Shops
Chocolate pairings with wine, spirits, coffee, cheese at your establishment.Educational Workshops
Perfect for culinary schools, food and chocolate festivals, and curious audiences.Each guided, sensory tasting typically includes 3-5 carefully selected craft chocolate bars showing the range of flavour cacao can produce.
For pairings, I work with WSET III Certified Sommelier, Mario Stojanac (who happens to be my husband).
What You'll Taste
And Why It Matters
Fine chocolate can be surprisingly diverse. Depending on the tasting, examples might include single origin beans made by award-winning, Canadian (and sometimes international) chocolate-makers.
Think Madagascan cacao from the Sambirano Valley that tastes of bright red fruits and citrus notes, or Peruvian cacao with floral, dried fruit, and spice notes.Fun fact: These flavours are the natural expression of the cacao, not additives or other ingredients.This is directly-traded, sustainable and ethical cacao you can feel good about enjoying.
My Goal
To Demystify Fine Chocolate
I specialize in helping people understand what makes great chocolate great, from origin and fermentation to flavour evaluation.Through guided tastings and workshops, my goal is simple:
to make the world of fine chocolate approachable, fascinating, and delicious.
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