How Pioneering Chocolate Sommelier Sophia Contreras Rea Shares her Passion in Classes & Tastings
If you are into food art or culture on social media, chances are that you have encountered a beautiful picture of something vintage relating to chocolate and cacao. Chances also are that it came from a certain former chef turned chocolate sommelier in Nashville who goes by the name of Projet Chocolat. Meet Sophia Contreras Rea, steward of chocolate and sommelier to the world.
Creating a Career in Chocolate
For many people entering the world of craft chocolate, Sophia is likely to be amongst the first few profiles that will come onto their radars. The reason for this is simple: Sophia is the first to claim her space, and title, as an official chocolate sommelier. Many chocolate educators have since followed suit, although, for Sophia, a chocolate sommelier has an important nuance: Knowing hospitality and having soft skills.
Sophia originally wanted to be an artist working in the art world, but a teacher dissuaded the notion. “She said I would never be in the art world.” Hard to believe, as we see this aspiration not only lives on but thrives in Sophia’s current work today, through her love for curating all things chocolate paraphernalia. Be it a 90-year-old chocolate box, a French copper chocolate pot from the 1940s or an antique molinillo from Mexico, Sophia shows us that the beauty of chocolate and cacao goes beyond our tastebuds. One might say that Sophia is a walking chocolate museum, transmitting the history, culture and art of the origins of both chocolate and cacao. “I love finding unique things to put chocolate in,” she says. Sophia has found a way to live in the art world in her own style and often has art professors and food historians attending her classes (via Atlas Obscura). Having a background as a chef to celebrities such as country rock powerhouses Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Sophia is more than familiar when it comes to ingredients and flavor profiles. As a result, she is able to create some of the most unique chocolate pairings and even has a guide to help others.
Having started conducting chocolate tastings as early as 2011, it was while she was mentoring a friend’s 8th-grade son on his project on the history of chocolate that Sophia realised that she had found her niche in addressing the historical culture of chocolate and cacao. “That 8th-grade project was the most pivotal work I’ve ever done” she proclaims. And it’s not just older history that Sophia brings to the proverbial chocolate table. She’s keen to get recent history out there before it is forgotten as well, by speaking of the works of great names who have played important, pioneering roles in elevating chocolate, such as the likes of Chantal Coady, Chloe Doutre - Roussel, and Mackenzie Rivers, founder of Map Chocolate.
Current Chocolate Favorites
“Mademoiselle Miel’s Rose honey bonbon is perfection from beginning to end. Beautiful deep dark chocolate, a tiny bonbon in blue lustre dust, no sugar, only honey from her beehives. It’s the real taste of chocolate and bittersweetness with honey and rose enveloping[…] it’s the way a floral should hit.” (Editor’s note: read more about Mademoiselle Miel) She’s also a fan of Cloud Forest, an Ecuadorian chocolate maker who uses copious amounts of Ecuadorian vanilla that tastes like heaven. “Sebastian (Cisneros, Cloud Forest chocolate maker) is an example of someone doing it right.” Concerning designs and moulds, she says ‘I love a plain, flat mould because you can see the tempering, the beauty of the inclusions.’.
I ask Sophia to recommend a ‘gateway’ craft chocolate bar for those who have chosen to foray into this exciting world of Bean to Bar. “I’m going to give you a sommelier’s answer,” she says, unsurprisingly. “It depends on who it is and what they like. Meet them where they are first”.
As a seasoned chocolate sommelier, Sophia knows her way around the chocolate world well and has seen plenty. As a result, she has useful takeaways for not just chocolate enthusiasts but makers too. “Never put chocolate for sale that doesn’t taste good. If you have any doubts at all, do not sell it. People will never come back from a bad chocolate.”
She also has wise words for new chocolate educators and aspiring sommeliers, which is knowing the worth of what they are bringing to the table. “It’s mostly women in this industry. We must set healthy boundaries by saying no when asked to do things for free or based on ‘opportunity’ alone.”
What comes next for Sophia? “I still have to learn and challenge myself […]I want to keep furthering my education and provide special chocolates.” It makes sense that learning chocolate making from Mackenzie Rivers of the Next Batch School is on the cards for Sophia, then. One can only imagine the sort of chocolate creations that will arise when a chocolate sommelier sets out to marry chocolate making with art, history and culture.