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EVENT RECAP

FCIA Kicks Off Year-Long 10th Anniversary Celebration

Elevate Chocolate – Winter 2017 San Francisco, January 21, 2017

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Highlights Tasting the Future of Fine Chocolate

Innovations in Process, Flavor, Business and Marketing

The FCIA’s Elevate Chocolate - Winter 2017 in San Francisco last month was another big success and a great vehicle to launch FCIA’s year-long celebration of our 10th anniversary. In case you weren’t there, see what you missed:

New all-day format: You requested – we delivered. We didn’t know if people would come

early and stay late for the new all-day format. They did! Attendees enjoyed more and longer Table Talks, new focused networking sessions (Huddles), two keynote presenters, a presentation on FSMA, an after-party sponsored by ECOM Cocoa and all the favorites like the Gallery Showcase and the HCP designations and tasting.

Larger venue: The event keeps growing! FCIA moved to the larger ballroom at the

InterContinental San Francisco Hotel. And still the early morning Huddles overwhelmed the lobby and the Table Talks flowed out into the hallway. Don’t worry – we already have a fix for next year. And there will be more food for lunch next year, too!

Attendance: We matched our record-breaking goal of last year with 267 registered attendees.

Gallery Showcase: The hall was buzzing with 20 exhibitors.

Educational program: Attendees enjoyed a provocative slate of Table Talks, an update on

the Heirloom Cacao Preservation efforts and tasting, a presentation from NCA’s Laura Shumow on the Food Safety Modernization Act and insightful keynote presentations by Volker Lehmann, Frontier Ventures and Michael Recchiuti, Recchiuti Confections.

Networking: As usual, FCIA was the place to be if you wanted to connect with your fine chocolate colleagues. From farmers to bean traders, chocolate makers to chocolatiers, packaging, equipment and suppliers – everyone was there!

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Founders Corner

To help FCIA kick off a year-long celebration of our 10th anniversary, we decided to honor our Founding Members and take a step back and reflect on all that has evolved over these first 10 years.

FCIA Founding Mothers and Past Presidents – Mary Jo Stojak, Stojak & Associates and Pam Williams, Ecole Chocolate

with FCIA Advisory Members Steve DeVries, DeVries Chocolate and Michael Ricchiuti, Ricchiuti Confections proudly point to growth from 16

members in 2007 to 331 in 2016 with a total community near 2,000.

Here’s a link for a closer look at the timeline.

Founders Corner sponsored by

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Meet the Huddles

FCIA introduced a new networking activity at Winter 2017 – Huddles! These are morning networking sessions focused on specific segments of the industry so participants can dig deeper, make connections and have a stronger voice.

Chocolate Maker Huddle Facilitated by Greg D'alesandre, Dandelion Chocolate In this Huddle, participants discussed the creation of an FCIA online forum just for chocolate makers. We’ll hear more about this in the coming months.

Chocolate Maker Huddle sponsored by

Chocolatier Huddle Facilitated by Richard Tango-Lowy, Dancing Lion Chocolate

This Huddle focused on strategies for profitability, social media, pricing and more, while building relationships for ongoing discussion. They would like FCIA to continue offering networking opportunities, equipment advice, sustainable business advice, more education. This group will be watching the Chocolate Maker online forum – they want one, too!

Industry Supplier Huddle & New Member Huddle Facilitated by Karen Bryant, Executive Director, FCIA

Huddle participants included new members and industry suppliers (some were both) and discussed how to bridge needs of both groups. They enthusiastically offered feedback on the new benefits coming this year: a mentoring program, webinars, regional meetups and origin tours. Industry suppliers saw how they could contribute and members saw how they would benefit. Everyone will be invited to participate.

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Table Talks

Table Talks invite attendees to get up-close-and-personal with industry leaders to become active participants in shaping the discussions at FCIA events. Table Talks are by nature a conversation, so it is impossible to capture the content. You have to be there. Here are a few glimpses:

FCIA once again offered a wide range of topics from:

Using technology to reach and understand your customers to pros and cons of key business models for chocolate makers and chocolatiers and best practices of successful fine chocolate professionals.

You requested more of a focus on equipment, so we included a topic on innovations in equipment. We provided a demonstration on tempering and & using transfer sheets as well as trending confectionery flavors.

We introduced FCIA’s preliminary findings from our national research on consumer perception of fine chocolate and another consumer oriented topic about the impact of your relationship with farmers and how to tell that story.

And one of our popular topics was an update on the various efforts to create sensory standards in defining fine chocolate quality.

(FCIA was pleased to present highlights from the preliminary findings from our national research on consumer perception of fine chocolate. A detailed report will be presented at the June event in New York and made available to FCIA Members at that time.)

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Afternoon Session NCA's Laura Shumow Presents

Food Safety Modernization Act: Impact on Chocolate Makers and Chocolatiers

FCIA was honored to have NCA’s Laura Shumow present critical information about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and implications for chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Thanks to a generous grant from Ecole Chocolat and with permission of NCA, we are pleased to provide attendees and members the opportunity to view the video of Laura’s FSMA presentation.

Laura has also kindly allowed FCIA to share her PowerPoint from her presentation on the FSMA along with an additional presentation on labeling regulations that she touched on in her remarks.

(Links to these documents are provided in the email and in the Members Only section of FCIA’s website.)

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FCIA President Clark Guittard Opens Winter 2017 Formal Program

Clark Guittard, Guittard Chocolate Company, opened the formal portion of the event to a capacity crowd by first acknowledging the Founding Members, Advisory Board and Board Directors of FCIA and then looking back at milestones achieved in our first ten years. Where we’ve been:

FCIA has grown to over 300 members with a large supporting global community while holding true to its founding premise of providing a forum for education, engagement and empowerment.

FCIA has convened hundreds of educational opportunities for the fine chocolate community.

We’ve continued to help educate the industry as a whole and farmers globally on leading post-harvest practices.

We’ve launched the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative (2012).

FCIA is taking a pivotal role in supporting the development of sensory standards for cacao.

FCIA has undertaken ground-breaking national research on consumer perception of fine chocolate.

Where we’re going:

FCIA will be creating an educational portal to house our best practices and lessons learned so members can access new learnings on demand.

We’ll continue our national research efforts and launch new consumer awareness initiatives.

We’ll expand our support of HCP by searching for more heirloom cacao around the world.

And, we’ll continue to be a leading voice on developing sensory standards for cacao by leveraging the vast knowledge and passion of our membership.

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Keynote Presentations Tasting the Future of Fine Chocolate:

Innovations in Process, Flavor, Business and Marketing

Keynotes and HCP articles by Jeffry Ross. Jeffry is the Lifestyle Editor for Wine Country This Week magazine, and contributor to

Very Napa Valley magazine. He is a graduate of Ecole Chocolat Professional School of Chocolate Arts,

an award-winning chocolatier and caramelier, and is founder/chocolatier of Baci Artisan Chocolatier.

Volker Lehmann

The Fine Chocolate Industry Association kicked off its 10th anniversary celebration, in San Francisco, at Elevate Chocolate - Winter 2017, with Volker Lehmann, of Frontier Ventures, as one of two headline keynote speakers.

A professionally trained tropical agriculturist, international agroforestry expert, and Heirloom Cacao Preservation (HCP) farmer, Lehmann’s “search for gold” began in 1991, where he entered a dense Bolivian jungle and discovered wild cacao. In 2001, Lehmann learned of some land for sale which included hundreds of acres

of ancient cacao forest. In 2003, he purchased and developed his tropical jungle estate, “Hacienda Tranquilidad”.

In his keynote address to a capacity crowd, Lehmann spoke of his concern for fine flavor farmers and the challenges of harvesting a high maintenance crop. “Small estate farms will increase,” Lehmann asserts, however, “the future of

fine chocolate is up to the chocolate industry.” If we want our farmers to continue producing fine, flavorful cacao, the industry needs to pay them an affordable wage for their beans.

Lehmann, an Heirloom farmer, created a wild harvest collection system with local and indigenous families, eventually expanding to over 1,000 families in the Bolivian Amazon. Recognizing the factors that threaten the world’s supply of high quality cacao, in 2009, Lehmann initiated a fine flavor cacao project with small farmer associations, making Bolivia one of the top countries for specialty and quality cacaos. Improving the lives of the farmers who harvest fine cacao, and to preserve and protect small estate farms for future

generations, Lehmann advocates for chocolate industry professionals, chocolate makers and chocolate consumers to purchase “certified HCP branded cacao”.

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Michael Recchiuti

The closing portion of the formal program was delivered by, Michael Recchiuti of Recchiuti Confections, a local legend and one of FCIA’s Founding Members.

Recchiuti transported the standing-room audience on a humor-filled, flashback to 1985, when he worked for a San Francisco catering company, “basically making all their desserts”. The company allowed Recchiuti to start his own dessert catering business and use their kitchen to do his “own thing”, which he thought was “pretty cool”.

A self-trained chocolatier, Michael Recchiuti, and his wife Jacky, developed their craft

chocolate business with the idea that meticulously sourcing fresh, local ingredients, handcrafted in small batches and using traditional European techniques would make Recchiuti Confections a “necessary indulgence”.

Recchiuti devoted much of his presentation reflecting on the fortuitous serendipities, including a chance meeting with Bill Gates, that ultimately propelled him into the confectionery spotlight. In 1997, Recchiuti was able to get his chocolates into Chuck Williams's hands for his 80th birthday, which “established our relationship with Williams-Sonoma”.

Marketing opportunities were a highlight of Recchiuti’s address. “Marketing is always a challenge”, Recchiuti acknowledged, “especially for new chocolate makers entering the marketplace”. Reflecting on his own origins, Recchiuti spoke of farmers’ markets, describing them as “organic marketing”. “We started selling my chocolate every Saturday at the farmers' market, meeting all the local people and the different press”. Various social media platforms were discussed as an

indispensable marketing tool. Regarding the future of new flavor innovations, Recchiuti spoke of “thinking outside the box” experimenting with “exotic teas, herbs and spices typically used in savory food infusions”.

The program ended with an entertaining, rapid-fire PowerPoint presentation, revealing Recchiuti’s trademark playfulness and humor, followed by a spirited Q&A session with both presenters.

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Heirloom Cacao Preservation Update & Tasting

Dan Pearson, Founder and President of Marañón Chocolate, HCP President and FCIA Director, and Ed Seguine, Founder of Seguine Cacao, Cocoa & Chocolate Advisors and advisor to Guittard Chocolate Company and Chairman HCP International Tasting Panel, discussed the latest news on the effort to preserve fine flavor cacao and how the HCP (Heirloom Cacao Preservation) designation certification has the potential to become the best way for chocolate consumers to identify fine flavor cacao while helping small family farmers earn a sustainable wage.

HCP was launched in 2012, in partnership with the USDA and the Fine Chocolate Industry Association, in response to the global pressures of environmental change, deforestation, and economic influences threatening the world’s supply of high quality, flavorful cacao. The aim of the non-profit organization is to recognize, categorize and sustain fine cacao to defend it from extinction.

According to Seguine, “Quality cacao production is in jeopardy.” Currently, 95% of cacao farmers produce “bulk” cocoa, the chocolate equivalent of jug wine. As international cocoa exchange pricing rules lack a price premium for fine flavor, farmers have little incentive to produce better quality cacao and, instead, chase higher yields. While cocoa bean supplies rise, cocoa prices stay relatively low, farm profitability remains marginal, and the cocoa famers’ children drift away from the farm to seek better economic opportunities elsewhere.

Everyone in the audience had the chance to taste samples of HCP’s three new designated beans turned into chocolate. The quality was distinctive. Seguine’s presentation included an informative PowerPoint slide show, with tasting notes identifying several sensory evaluations, such as: Color, Aroma, Flavor and Profile. “The taste of the chocolate is not about the taste of the chocolate”, Seguine gestured, his arms wide open, “it’s about the tasting experience.”

In conclusion, FCIA participants learned that the HCP certification is a critical start toward defining the foundation of fine cacao and closing the income gap allowing small family farmers to thrive while preserving fine flavor cacao for the future.

Dan Pearson, HCP President

Ed Seguine, Chairman, HCP International Tasting Panel

Jacob Marlin and Niels Ingemann Moeller receiving their HCP certificates.

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Gallery Showcase

The Winter 2017 Gallery Showcase was buzzing excitement about the latest trends.

ASpecialtyBox.com

Casa Luker / ifiGourmet

Chef Rubber

ChocoTransferSheets

Cocoatown

Diamond Custom Machines

Dromedairy Naturals

ECOM Cocoa

Guittard Chocolate Co.

Hilliards Chocolate System

Mesocacao

Micelli Chocolate Mold

NW Chocolate Festival

Rockgate Group

Savage Bros

TCF Sales

The Big Chocolate Show

Tomric Systems

Truffly Made Inc.

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Where the PEOPLE in the industry come together!

Friday Night Cocktail Meet-Up

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Event Day – Networking Galore!

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After-Party Sponsored by

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Thank you, Contributors to the Chocolate Sampling Table

Burt Fork Bend Chocolate Cacao Santa Fe

Christopher Elbow Chocolates Dancing Lion Chocolate

Dandelion Chocolate flying noir

Guittard Chocolate Company Recchiuti Confections

Rococo Chocolate TCHO

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Thank You -- Event Sponsors

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Table Talks

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Buffet Huddles Founders Corner After Party

NCA FSMA Presentation & Video

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Thank you to these FCIA members who donated their time, services and products to produce a chocolate anniversary gift

for everyone at the event.

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Thank you, Media Sponsors

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Thank you, Partnering Sponsors

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Thank you, FCIA Education Committee

Daniel Domingo Education Committee Chair

ECOM Cocoa

Melanie Boudar The Art of Chocolate; Sweet Paradise Chocolatier

Todd Masonis Dandelion Chocolate

Art Pollard Amano Artisan Chocolate

Maricel Presilla International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting; Gran Cacao & Blue Cacao

Richard Tango-Lowy Dancing Lion Chocolate

Curtis Vreeland Vreeland & Associates

Karen Bryant FCIA Executive Director

And, Thank You, FCIA Staff

Karen Bryant, Jennifer Wicks, Dan Kaplan, Thei Zervaki, Executive Director Member Services Event Manager Event Assistnat Manager

Mark your calendars -- June 24, 2017

InterContinental New York Times Square Hotel