Clay Gordon is the founder and moderator of TheChocolateLife.com.

He has been seriously involved in the chocolate industry since 1998 and has been writing, lecturing, and teaching classes internationally on the subject of chocolate professionally since May, 2001 when he started his first chocolate blog, chocophile.com .

In 2007, his first book on chocolate, Discover Chocolate , was published by Gotham Books (Penguin USA). A finalist in the technical/reference category in the 2008 IACP Cookbook of the Year Awards, Discover Chocolate is the first book to talk about chocolate from the same perspective as a book about wine appreciation and connoisseurship.

Consulting Practice Areas of Expertise

Since 2003, Clay has made his extensive knowledge, experience, and network available on a consulting basis and has worked closely with a number of chocolatiers and chocolate companies, including many startups. The projects Clay has undertaken on behalf of his clients have been varied but have included:

Business plan development
Product development
Ingredient sourcing 
Facilities design and equipment sourcing
Market positioning
Packaging design and brand development
Copywriting, publicity, and promotion
Conference program development
Sales channel development
Sales training
Developing incentive travel programs
Developing and delivering educational programming
Design and development of chocolate processing equipment

Select List of Consulting Clients

• Askinosie Chocolate (USA)
• Chocolates Wolter (Mexico)
• Ciao Imports (USA)
• CHOCOA Conference (The Netherlands)
• Origin Chocolate event (The Netherlands)
• Delani Trading Company (Peru)
• FBM S.r.l. (Italy)
• SEDAFOP Ministry of Agriculture; SDET Ministry of Development, Economics, and Tourism (State of Tabasco, Mexico)
• INPI - National Intellectual Property Institute (Mexico)
• Ingemann Fine Cocoa (Nicaragua)
• APEN (Association of Producers and Exporters, Nicaragua)
• Mahogany Chocolate (Belize)
• REACH Grenada (USA/Grenada)
• The Big Events Group / The Big Chocolate Show (USA)