The Face of Organic Chocolate and Tea

David Gambill and Susan McCarn have been a Sonoma County gem for more than 17 years—voted Best Chocolatier in Sonoma County since 2009—and to hear them describe their creation process in chocolate and tea, you’d believe they were spinning gold. From their first tea truffle in France to their Sebastopol storefront, they’ve explored the chemistry of chocolate, its symphony of flavors, the way the best beans are sourced and how to sell their greatest product: smiles. “Only fine-flavor beans are used to make fine chocolate,” David says. “The flavor starts with the variety of bean that is grown; just like wine grapes, each step of the process then contributes to the final flavor, and each variety of cacao needs to be handled differently, from fermenting to roasting. A fine chocolate will linger in your mouth for many minutes. That’s one of the reasons that it takes very little fine chocolate to satisfy one’s desire.”