Godiva hires hundreds of people to make and sell chocolates. But the hardest jobs to fill are sensory technologists, "people who can distinguish between really good and really great," says Wayne Puglia, Godiva's senior vice president of global research and quality. Such professionals need to read between the lines as they watch consumers take taste tests. They need to understand the reaction to a new chocolate's appearance, ease of opening, how quickly it melts in the mouth. They also need to know regional preferences, says Puglia, noting that European chocolates must be richer, less sweet, and have more pronounced cocoa notes than American chocolates. "It requires a high degree of intuition," he says. Godiva considers chocolate "a hybrid of food and fashion."
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