What do we actually know about the US specialty chocolate consumer? Estelle Tracy, Barb Genuario, and Geneviève Leloup, colleagues who work daily at the intersection of chocolate makers and the people who enjoy their bars, join our hosts to dig into the findings of the recently published 2026 US Specialty Chocolate Consumer Survey and Market Study from the Institute for Cacao and Chocolate Research. Together they test the numbers against their own experience in the field, ask which results ring true and which surprise, and chart the next steps for an ambitious research agenda shaped by what chocolate makers across the country most want to know. Along the way, they celebrate makers and products that have recently delighted them, including Kessho, Castronovo, ChocoMotions, Bonnat, Guittard, Tony’s Chocolonely, Mount Pleasant, Blue Spruce, Maüa, Orinoco , and Standout. Read the full report: https://www.chocolateinstitute.org/u-s-specialty-chocolate-consumer-survey
Our three guests bring the survey's findings face-to-face with the people who live these questions every day.
Barb Genuario is a chocolate writer and educator, co-founder of the DC Chocolate Society, and one of the organizers of the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival in Rushville, Indiana (midwestcraftchocolatefestival.com); follow her chocolate adventures at @chocochaser.
Estelle Tracy is a chocolate sommelier and the founder of 37 Chocolates and the Chocolate Educator Workshop, where she hosts tastings designed for connection and forms others to do the same —find her at 37chocolates.com and on Instagram at @37chocolates.
Geneviève Leloup is a chocolate sommelier and the founder of ChocoMotions (chocomotions.com), pioneering confections made with cacao pulp—she's on Instagram at @chocomotions, and she also moonlights as manager at Diamond Custom Machines (DCM), so if you have interesting questions about chocolate-making machinery, she's your person.
