It's like a dream: Cherrie's job is to taste chocolate!

Cherrie Lo is a chocolate connoisseur. "I feel like chocolate has a magic to bring out the happiness inside you," she says.

Seven years ago, she bought a one-way ticket from Hong Kong to London in search of the stories behind this confectionery.

"I left everything behind, and quit my job," she says. She took a chocolate tasting course at the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting in London.

After 14 years in the chocolate world, she is now a chocolate judge at three renowned awards – the Academy of Chocolate Awards, the International Chocolate Awards and the Great Taste Awards. And she is the only chocolate taster from Hong Kong to have judged at all three awards.

Although Cherrie has now worked with many chocolate makers, pastry chefs and confectionery brands, she did not like chocolate very much as a child!

"My throat did not feel happy – it was very sweet. I needed to drink more water," she says.

After her studies, she wasn't seeking a job with chocolate. But one day, she met a chocolatier. She decided to join them to help promote Hong Kong's chocolate scene.

The more she saw of the chocolate world, the more she needed to learn about cacao. So she went to London to learn how chocolate is made, the origins of cacao beans, and how to identify the flavours. "You taste chocolate with five senses," she says, "using your nose to smell, your eyes to look at the shine, listening to how a bar snaps, using your palate to touch the silkiness."

At one judging event, she tasted 197 pieces of chocolate in three days!

She is never bored with her work. She often holds tastings in Britain and in Hong Kong to share her knowledge with others. "I am glad that I can introduce Asia's ideas to Europe's chefs," she says.

Five things to know about

1. Chocolate is a food made from the seeds of the cacao tree. It is used in many desserts like puddings, cakes, brownies, mousse, cookies and ice cream.
2. Chocolate can be in a solid form, like a bar, or it can be in a liquid form like hot chocolate.
3. The cacao tree was first discovered about 2,000 years ago. People in Central America and Mexico used the seeds from the cacao tree to make a drink that tasted bitter, not sweet.
4. Explorers brought the chocolate from Mexico to Europe. Later on, sugar and milk were added to make it sweeter.
5. Although cocoa originated in Central America, about two-thirds of the world's cocoa is now grown in West Africa, in countries like Ivory Coast.