The story behind Cacao Match

I’ve always been the person who brings home the chocolate. When I travel, I look for chocolate shops, seek out local makers, and bring bars home in my suitcase. And when I find something extraordinary, I want to help other people discover it too.

Over the years, that became a decade of tasting craft chocolate from makers and cacao origins around the world—and a fascination with just how different one bar can be from another.

Where cacao is grown, how it’s fermented and roasted, its genetics, and how a maker works with it can all shape the finished chocolate. Two 70% dark chocolate bars can be entirely different experiences—one rich and fudgy, another bright and fruit-forward.

The more I tasted, the more I realized that finding the right bar requires understanding two things: the chocolate itself and the person tasting it.

From tasting to Cacao Match

That’s where Cacao Match began. I wanted to take what I’d learned from tasting chocolate and use it to help other people discover chocolate they love.

I taste, take notes, and compare, evaluating sweetness, texture, intensity, balance, finish, and flavor. Those observations become structured tasting data that Cacao Match uses to connect what I experience in a bar with what you tell me you enjoy.

I don’t love everything I taste—and that matters. Some bars become favorites, some I like, and some simply aren’t for me.

Every bar in the Cacao Match collection has been personally tasted and independently reviewed by me, and every recommendation is grounded in that experience.