Christina Tarasuk comes to AUI with years of experience as a chocolatier, specializing in designing chocolates for corporate accounts. Her mother was the primary influence that encouraged Christina to become involved in the chocolate industry. She used to make chocolates and truffles for family and friends as gifts, until Christina had the idea to start selling them. She joined her mother in chocolate making because “I enjoyed it and I have a terrible sweet tooth.”

Christina started Exquis Confections with her mother and father. Together they designed hand-dipped truffles and specialty chocolate products for many clients, including the Coca-Cola Company and Time Life Books. During their busiest years Christina was grateful to also have the help of her two aunts who sold promotional chocolate products and operated their retail stores. “We used to get comments from our clients saying that their customers were asking if they were going to receive our chocolates again each year. It made me feel good to know that people liked our products that much.” Her company also created products for government functions, including the U.S. Presidential Dinner and the U.S. Supreme Court Reception. In 1992 Exquis Confections’ “Tiger Butter”, a white chocolate confection decorated with dark chocolate tiger stripes, was selected as an NASFT Fancy Foods Show finalist.  

After hand-dipping over 10,000 chocolate truffles during our Christmas season and working countless hours selling the confections at trade-shows and in several retail outlets she decided she needed a break. Christina had previously earned her Bachelor of Arts in Radio, Television and Film from the University of Maryland. She decided to return to her roots, working in the television industry as an Account Executive and managing a television visitor channel. She has worked in many areas of the television industry including sales and developing media products for clients. This experience combined with her role at Exquis Confections makes her an ideal fit for the role of AUI’s Corporate Account Manager for Retail Markets.

Christina decided to rejoin the specialty foods industry because “I missed the fun of the industry, and customers’ reactions to really good chocolate. I had always enjoyed providing customers with upscale food products that helped them to increase their success.” Christina is very excited to bring AUI and its products into the retail market.

Click here to contact Christina Tarasuk directly.