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By Rick Farrant

Cathy Brand-Beere sat at her desk drinking from a brown coffee mug so large it eclipsed her face.

In front of her, in no particular order, were a curious assortment of culinary experiments she'd been sampling, including four half-eaten pieces of white and dark chocolate on a plain paper towel.

It was nothing out of the ordinary for the president of Fort Wayne's DeBrand Fine Chocolates, who by her own admission is constantly thinking about new concoctions, sometimes to the exclusion of more cut and dried business matters.

When she attends meetings, she said, her thoughts sometimes wander to the extra dash of sea salt she wants to add to a recipe. When she walks the corporate headquarters on Auburn Park Drive, her employees said, she frequently approaches them with a bowl and spoon in hand, encouraging them to try a new creation.

Coincidentally, Brand-Beere hates numbers, as in the financial kind. And, she said, DeBrand has never had a business plan, at least not on paper.

"I know people alter their plans all the time," she said, "but if they're altering their plans, what was the point? I'm not saying I don't have plans in my head. I just don't feel the need to put them on paper."

All this from the architect of a 23-year-old company that continues to grow locally, nationally and internationally on the strength of "the best chocolate," which are her words, and word-of-mouth spread through virtually every socio-economic strata.

Brand-Beere said sales, which have risen steadily over the years, were up 5 to 10 percent in recession-mired 2009. And while the majority of DeBrand customers are the common among us, DeBrand in 2009 added yet another prestigious customer: a Dubai princess in the United Arab Emirates who ordered 500 12-piece truffle boxes with thank-you bars. The princess joins another elite DeBrand customer, Donald Trump, who offers "Trump"-stampedchocolates in his hotels and casinos.

Brand-Beere, 48, would like to think most people flock to DeBrand's products, especially during the holidays, because of the quality and variety of the chocolates. Despite her penchant for creativity, she said quality is indeed the No. 1 priority. It is reflected in the gray and white and steel-silver sterility of the temperature-controlled cooking and chocolate-making kitchens on Auburn Park Drive, in the white net caps and latex gloves worn by workers and in the commitment to toss any product that is even marginally subpar.

Quality, too, is evident in the mail order room, where DeBrand routinely ships 100 orders a day and more than 1,000 a day during holiday seasons. The key concern: ensuring that the packages of chocolates will arrive at their destinations unmarred and unmelted.

Laurie Nadeau, mail order manager, said she and her staff check weather reports every morning across the country - sometimes around the globe - to make sure the temperature at airport hubs and destinations will not exceed 68 degrees. Any temperature above that and DeBrand will package the largely handmade chocolates in insulation and ice bricks.

The track record for safe arrivals has been exceptional, Brand-Beere said.

In an even more exacting environment of quality, Theresa Grotrian, administrative assistant in DeBrand's cavernous warehouse, keeps records of all the lot numbers for all the ingredients and supplies - a federal requirement in the age of terrorism awareness. She also inspects DeBrand's presentation boxes for bends, folds and marks that would make them unsuitable for use.

On a recent day, 70 yellow-ribboned Connoisseur Collection boxes were stacked on a cart beside Grotrian's desk, all of them rejects, none of them bound for DeBrand's four retail locations at Auburn Park Drive, Jefferson Boulevard, Coldwater Road and Fort Wayne International Airport.

Also near her desk, on a big white board hanging from the wall, were these black-marker words: "A chocolate in the mouth is worth two on the plate."

Those words are symbolic of the most distinguishing characteristic of DeBrand's operations beside quality. Virtually everyone at DeBrand - and it may indeed be everyone - loves chocolate, and most eat it every day.

It could be the result of the infectious spirit of the ever chocolate-conscious Brand-Beere, who at 8 years old began dabbling with ingredients in the home of her confections supplier parents, got inexplicably sidetracked in an architectural design career and then came back to earth to form DeBrand, which she's steered with the help of her husband, Tim.

On the other hand, maybe DeBrand's employees - there are about 80 depending on the season - simply adore chocolate for chocolate's sake. It helps, too, that there is a daily supply of rejects - "mistakes," they're called - to choose from, anything from incompletely molded truffles to flaws in decorative designs.

Diane Lampe has been with DeBrand for 20 years and oversees pretty much all of the behind-the-scenes operations. Ask her if she eats chocolate daily and a wide grin will erupt before she speaks.

"Oh," she said, "I do. And lots of it. Breakfast, lunch and dinner and everything in between. By the time I get home, all I want are vegetables. After eating chocolates for eight hours, you've pretty much had your fill of sweets."

Pete Housman, manager of the chocolate-making kitchen, is another on-the-job chocolate eater, if not by choice then because he has to sample the chocolate to assess texture and taste. He's also one of Brand-Beere's personal experimental testers.

"Every day," Housman said, "has a possibility of being introduced to a new flavor or ingredient that I've never seen, tasted or perhaps even heard of before."

As he spoke, a huge vat filled with 300 to 400 pounds of liquid chocolate churned, other workers used cones to slip streaks of decorative dark chocolate into molds for macadamia nut truffles and tray after tray of perfect, glossy truffles sat waiting for a home. All except one tray, that is. It bore the mistakes that would become the workers' treasures

Smiling employees said their chocolate-eating habits constitute a wonderful diet plan; after eating chocolate all day, they have a hankering for little else. The only downside is that when people outside of DeBrand discover where they work, they expect gifts.

Said Lampe: "They think you have it in your pockets and in your purse. Anywhere you go, they think you just have it."

For some, a free DeBrand sampling from an employee would be quite a coup. A significant order of DeBrand chocolates can be a tad pricey.

But in Brand-Beere's invisible business plan, cost should never trump excellence.

"I'm not looking to be inexpensive," she said. "I'm looking to make the best product we can. We can't be the cheapest and still be the best."

People can, though, indulge modestly and treat themselves to a small guilty pleasure.

"Maybe you can't go buy a Lexus," Brand-Beere said, "but you can go buy a little Connoisseur Chocolate and enjoy every bite of it."

Customers also can be sure that as the years go by, Brand-Beere, who admits to getting bored easily, will be drumming up all sorts of other chocolate-related delights for consumption, some of them edible, some of them utilitarian.

Take, for instance, that big brown coffee cup with the glazed drips of dark chocolate running from the rim. Brand-Beere made the cup at the Naked Clay Cafe purely for personal use, then turned it into a product for DeBrand's stores.

"I'm always looking for new things, new products," she said. "I like change - if it's for the better. I don't like the status quo."