Amedei Tuscanya gourmet Italian chocolate brand was founded by Cecilia Tessieri, the world's first female master chocolatier. From Tuscany, Italy, Tessieri started making confections in tiny 480 square foot space with just one employee, until she realized that not everything was made completely by her. Tessieri spent 24 years traveling around the world, working with chocolatiers in a male dominant field and visiting cacao plantations in search for the best chocolate. Tessieri created Amedei, named after her grandmother in 1990. Amedei uses only the best ingredients and Tessieri carefully overseeing each step the cacao beans go through to ensure fine quality chocolate. Only 1% of the beans harvested are deemed worthy to create Amedeis chocolate. Amedei evolved as one of the worlds premier luxury chocolate makers and is a six time winner of the Academy of Chocolates 'Golden Bean' award (equivalent to the Academy Award for chocolatiers, according to Tessieri.