Chocolate tasting
Filed Under Swarthmore
Tonight we went to a Swat alumni event: the second annual chocolate tasting. I do not recall why we did not go to the first annual chocolate tasting; I assume we had something incredibly important to do.
The evening began with an economics prof talking a bit about the chocolate biz, current marketing trends, buying patterns, corporate consolidation, fair trade, etc. The evening ended with samples of pot luck confections (homemade and store bought, including Larry’s matzah brittle) which were quite yummy.
But the real highlight was the middle bit, when a West Chester chocolatier spoke about his business. And brought samples. This is the first time I’ve eaten chocolate with nibs in it; great contrast to the creamy texture of the bulk of the piece. I couldn’t distinguish the various fruits involved in the different mendiants (maybe a decent sense of smell would help, or maybe it’s just a function of an untrained palate) though there was indeed an evolving taste as the chocolate sat in my mouth. (The chocolatier called it a story; I can’t quite go that far, given the lack of POV, character arc, etc. But it was nonetheless delightful.)
I can highly recommend Éclat’s mendiants. Tonight we sampled the Arriba (Ecuador), Alta El Sol (Peru), Madagascar, and Tanzania. Friends in the audience said the salt-sprinkled truffles are also delumpscious. We are planning to make a pilgrimage in the near future.
At least I went to someone’s reunion
Filed Under Life, Swarthmore
Larry’s tenth was this past weekend, and quite a lot of fun. It’s the first of three events where we’re likely to see lots of the same people, so I treated it as a non-incredibly-high-priority opportunity to socialize with the usual suspects. Since it was his tenth a lot of unusual suspects showed up. I have a much easier time being social when I’m not feeling crappy, so I enjoyed the festivities and company. Several Swilfolk remarked that I should’ve used “Lovecraft” as a surname (based upon the presence of both middle initials on my name tag). The odd thing is I can’t recall anyone having said that before, and I could’ve sworn my initials have been publicly displayed in the past. Or maybe I’m just going crazy.