Susan Fine & Her Chocolate Factory

Susan Fine equates the tasting of dark chocolate with the tasting of a fine wine.

To prove her point, the bubbly owner of The Chocolate Path store lifts a tidbit of dark chocolate—this one from Jamaica—and rubs it back and forth between her fingers in order to release the flavors. Then, she holds it under her nose in order to get a good whiff. "There's a bit of a pepper undertone," she decides. Finally, she places it into her mouth. "You don't chew it but you let it melt so you can savor it," she says. "This one starts off strong but then it mellows out a bit."

There's no doubt this mother of two enjoys teaching others how to extract the fullest flavor potential from the dark chocolates she sells—just as one would a good wine. And she boasts a perfect venue to do it in.

Only a year ago, Fine moved The Chocolate Path from Lackawanna Plaza to a more heavily trafficked spot next to Trumpets on Walnut Street. The larger space—with shiny wood floors and lovely exposed brick—has afforded her the opportunity to offer chocolate tastings for as many as 40 to 50 people at a time.

In addition, it's offered Fine the chance to do special events such as a Chocolate Tango evening coming up on Friday, July 9th. Local dancer Simone Coonrod will lead tango lessons broken up by dark chocolate tastings.

"This spot gets lots of foot traffic and more activity," Fine says. "It's been amazing to be here in this new space."

Fine stocks shelves and shelves of what she refers to as "Everyday Dark Chocolate From The World's Best Sources." When pressed to name her favorite, she calls attention to the Kakawa Cocoa Beans, which are beans covered in layers of white, milk, and dark chocolates—lots of flavors rolled into a single decadent bite.

Fine explains that products are extra healthy when they are 72 percent or higher dark chocolate.

"The higher the cocoa content the higher the antioxidants and other good things," she says.

Fine honed her retail skills in high school when she was employed by a bookstore in Ft. Worth, Texas. She went on to work at a number of retail stores while studying communications and photography at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Later, in New York City, she started her own consulting business, helping companies such as IBM understand business television.

But Fine's real passion has always been dark chocolate.

"I've liked it ever since I was a kid and I could always find it when I lived in New York," she says. "But when we moved to Montclair [about 12 years ago] it became harder to find dark chocolate."

And that's when she decided to start stocking and selling the stuff herself.

Going forward, Fine plans to offer classes on how to make hot chocolate and to do a better job of educating customers as to how dark chocolate is made.

"I still don't want to have a Chocolate Path chocolate but there's no reason I couldn't do a chocolate-making class just like people do beer-making classes," she says.

Towards that end, Fine recently returned from an eight-day "chocolate tour" of Belize, where she found herself off the grid, deep in the heart of the Central American rainforest.

"I had always imagined cocoa trees growing in groves sort of like apple trees," she says. "But we were led by a farmer with a machete who was cutting through mango trees and banana trees and then would point out a cocoa tree.

"It was a total jungle and everything was mixed together which made sense because of all the flavors you get from a piece of dark chocolate," she says.

No doubt she'll wean many customers off milk chocolate in the years to come and toward the dark chocolate she buys from farmers all over the world. Simply put, she wants people to understand that milk chocolate doesn't have the same level of sophistication as dark chocolate.

"Some of them start off fruity and then you'll get some floral," she says. "There are all sorts of nuances when you are dealing with dark chocolate. When you taste it you get a sense of where the cocoa has come from."

Find out more about Chocolate Tango evening here.