Chocolate For Nerds

Chocolate For Nerds is for people who love to learn about chocolate (or food in general), open to new tastes, concepts, and approaches, and have a curiosity about food, flavour, and science. Hosted either in person in Vancouver, BC, Canada, or virtually over Zoom (kits ship across Canada & USA).

The purpose is to experience new chocolate, understand the nuances of fine chocolate, socialize, meet new people, ask questions, and be curious.

How it works: Check out upcoming events and join either the in-person meetup in the Vancouver, BC area, or the virtual event. We will taste a flight of samples of chocolate (and sometimes cacao). The themes and samples and concepts will change from meetup to meetup. We will get together, socialize a bit, taste and then discuss openly in a fun and casual way. The host will ask questions to prompt thought and discussion. It's interactive, so you're input is necessary to join.

Who is it for? All are welcome! Beginners included. It's not a competition to see who can "taste the best" or "get the right answer". Not at all. It's a casual tasting where participants are encouraged to pay attention to what their senses are telling them about the chocolate, and to simply share that with the group. Have fun comparing how we see and taste the various samples and hopefully learn from one another.

The Host: I'm Geoseph, the host. I've been a professional in the chocolate realm for nearly 20 years. I'm a nerd myself with a fascination for both the kitchen and the science. My goal is to educate the public on chocolate in a way that is approachable, real, and genuine.

Dietary Requests? Check a specific meetup to see what we will be sampling. For most meetups, samples will not include nuts/gluten, and many will be dairy-free/vegan.

The Virtual Meetup? For this, you purchase your kits via the link, and they will be shipped out a week or two before the event. It's important to know that these Zoom sessions will be recorded and posted online, as a fun way for people to watch and learn from us (almost like they are there with us). You can certainly opt to turn off your camera, but voices and/or the chat feature in Zoom must be used. These are not passive meetups, but social ones where we discuss together as a group. No-shows are also not tolerated and may get you banned from future meetups.

Absolutely no self promotion or snobs. This is not a space to promote your own chocolate or related business of any kind. Also, this is not a space that tolerates any sort of chocolate snobbery or judgemental attitudes which include things like shaming people for enjoying commercial chocolate, or not agreeing with your preferences or flavour analysis. It's geared towards people who are considerate and sensitive to other's food preferences and ideas on food.