BY COLLEEN SHANAHAN
Lions’ Pride Online Editor

A chocolate fountain with strawberries and bananas. Servers bringing out chocolate filled trays for the picking. Goodie bags. Coffee. Cupcakes. Music. Sound like an amazing dream? This was real life at the Honors Program Chocolate Tasting on Saturday February 13.

The event was by invitation only and put on by the Honors Program. Presenters Brittany Rathbone and Grant Posner guided the attendees through the history of chocolate at the beginning of the night.

First Sample: Dark Chocolate- a bitter, yet sweet chocolate.

Tasters learned that the darker the chocolate, the louder the snap is when anyone breaks it. Chocolate has regional differences (hemisphere to hemisphere, country to country) due to what is grown around it. For example, did you know that in Ecuador, the chocolate has floral and fruit notes in the taste, and in the Dominican Republic, the chocolate has tobacco notes to it because of all the tobacco grown around it?

Second Sample: Pomegranate Seeds in Chocolate- a fruity, sweet, and tangy experience.
The cacao tree is grown 20 degrees north and south of the equator. It is a very touchy plant to grow, and it is susceptible to a lot of pests and disease. One tree is able to produce around 1,000 beans a year, or one to two pounds of chocolate. 90 percent of the farms are small, less than 120 acres each.

Third Sample: Peppermint Truffle- a minty, sweet, milk chocolaty experience.
Chocolate was thought to be discovered by monkeys. The sweet, refreshing pulp of the tree was searched for in the humid countries. The monkeys spit out the bitter beans, and more trees began to grow. Men saw the monkeys doing this ritual, and they figured it was worth a try.
Fourth Sample: White Chocolate dipped pretzels- sweet and salty.

Did you know that cacao beans were used as currency? And, at one point, just like counterfeit coins, there were counterfeit beans? Old beans would be split, refilled, and placed back into circulation. Bitter chocolate drinks we wouldn’t consider edible were concocted, and they were considered the elixir of life.

Fifth Sample: Seconds!

Did you know facts:
Chocolate was rationed to soldiers in WWII in 4oz bottles?
Casanova used chocolate as a bribe for chaperones of his favorite lady loves?
Chocolate is a natural anti-depressent?
Chocolate is full of anti-oxidents?
Chocolate isn’t linked to acne, but the milk in milk chocolate is?
Lastly, chocolate raises a heart rate and brain activity more intensely than passionate kissing and lasts four times as long?
The night was filled with chocolaty goodness of all sorts, and so was my stomach.