The little wrapped chocolates were passed around the Upper West Side living room on a silver tray, plucked one at a time by the manicured hands of the guests perched on sofas and kitchen chairs.
“Probiotic,†the hostess of the tasting, Patricia Watt, a theater producer, told a group seemingly culled from the front page, gossip sheets and back copies of Playbill. They chewed and nodded with approval, among them a prominent 9/11 widow, a bankruptcy lawyer, an Argentinean investor and avid polo player, a Pace University student, and a former sister-in-law of the last president.
Ms. Watt said a few words about the chocolate, pitched as being so rich in antioxidants that, if eaten three times a day, it provides some nutritional benefits on the order of a pound of spinach. Then she said a few more, about a new way to make some money in a shaky economy.
Exotic name and sleek day-spa packaging notwithstanding, Xoçai (pronounced show-SIGH) is a cousin of the humble Amway products, among the newest in a seemingly endless series of network-marketing ventures. But where Tupperware parties and door-to-door sales are a time-honored tradition in suburban towns, Xoçai has found a foothold among the ladies who lunch — and the men who love them — in New York City.
“When you think of Amway, you think about people in a ranch house somewhere,†said Ronnie Glucksman, 47, a theater producer and Xoçai distributor who said he found network marketing “unseemly†until Ms. Watt, a close friend, persuaded him to sign up. “You’ve got people in penthouses who are involved in this.â€
Logo from Xoçai