Education — Allison Brown

Allison Brown holds an open cacao pod in a grove of cacao trees and smiles at the camera.

Meet Allison

Allison Brown is a PhD candidate at Penn State University studying a dual-title degree in Food Science and International Agriculture and Development. She earned a BS in Food Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, during which she studied abroad at Zamorano University in Honduras—an experience that dramatically changed her life. In 2008, she received an Accelerated Culinary Arts Certificate from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. After working in the wine industry, she switched her focus to cocoa and chocolate and earned her MS in Food Technology at Wageningen University in The Netherlands where she studied the physical properties of chocolate. Allison spent 1.5 years at Ghent University in Belgium, researching cacao fermentation and sugar replacement in chocolate. With her PhD research, she continues to study chocolate along the entire cocoa to chocolate supply chain. The international development portion of her work focuses on understanding the impact of an in-country sensory panel on Honduran cocoa quality. The bulk of her research uses sensory science and chemistry to characterize the flavor, taste and mouthfeel sensations of cocoa liquor resulting from different Theobroma cacao cultivars. Allison’s consumer research looked at American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping.

Download Allison’s CV

Allison Brown CV

Three cacao grinders stand on a table in the dry pilot plant at the Pennsylvania State University

Allison looks at a large rack of cacao drying in the sun in Honduras

For updates, follow Allison on Instagram @allisonlouisebrown

I was interviewed by @pmca1907 for their PMCA Research Chat!!! Go to your podcast app or Google "PMCA Research Chat Allison Brown" et voila! I discuss the #craftchocolate #consumer paper we published in #plosone --in my own words!!! @helene.hopfer @baaaaaaaakke 🍫🍫🍫

Golden hour cross country ski 😍

Finally posting this, if you only KNEW what went into the process of making this somewhat post-able! 😭 OKAY. When you're at the grocery store or shopping online, what do you look for in a chocolate bar and do you know WHY? Alyssa Bakke, @helene.hopfer, and I did a study to find out! Premium chocolate consumers cited three main attributes they desire in chocolate products. Search attributes, such as #price, #availability, #packaging, and #segmentation were at the top of the list. However, credence attributes such as #trust, conveyed by a person’s name (like @gdalesandre on the back of a @dandelionchocolate bar), and experience attributes, such as #joy from eating chocolate and/or utility, giving chocolate as a gift, also emerged. We asked the same consumers their impressions of #craftchocolate and found they were excited by the #novelty and compared the #flavor and #origin to #wine and #coffee. A taste of the article is here in the press release because instagram and links don't mix! If you’re hungry for more, read the #openaccess article in #plosone! The link is in my bio! 🍫🍷

Rosie is excited to deliver the #postcardstovoters that we wrote! #vote #vote2020 #civicduty #usps #ditchmitch @buckforpa DM me if you'd like info on writing postcards or sign up at www.postcardstovoters.org!