Dr. Nat Bletter has 15 years of experience in botany, documenting exotic fruits and vegetables, gathering food in the wild, herbal and traditional medicine, and exploring Asia, South America, Central America, and Africa. He has a Ph.D. in Ethnobotany from the City University of New York and New York Botanical Garden and was a post-doctoral fellow at University of Hawai’i Manoa, where he researched medicinal plants of Peru, Mali, Thailand, Laos, and the Guatemalan Mayans, ethnobotany, taste-modifying plants, and stimulant plants such as cacao, which has spurred him to start a traditional-ingredient, award-winning, artisinal chocolate company Madre Chocolate based in Honolulu, O’ahu.