Just when you think you’ve tasted all Easton has to offer! Following highlights like bacon popcorn at Baconfest or a scoop of garlic ice cream at the Garlic Festival, the Chocolate Lovers Soirée arrived this winter to warm your heart and coax out your inner sweet tooth.

What originally started as a Valentine’s Day event, the Chocolate Lovers Soirée is an evening comprised entirely of decadent chocolate tastings. The event, now an eight-year-old tradition, was held this past Saturday.  With eighteen local vendors, restaurants, and bakery chefs coming together to spoil Downtown Easton with savory chocolate morsels, cakes, mousse, and cocktails.

The menu coalesced a series of sweet as well as savory dishes some highlights include Leaf Restaurant’s miniature onion tart freckled with goat cheese and topped with a light chocolate balsamic glaze and chocolate and bacon bit bourbon truffles, Setta Luna’s white chocolate panna cotta, as well as Bank Street Creamery’s famous chocolate salted caramel and cashew almond joy with coconut almonds and dark chocolate chunks ice creams.

If you felt a tad bit greedy and hoped to arrive in time to call first dibs, you had the option of purchasing a preview admission ticket and savoring all the chocolate to your sweet tooth’s content beginning at 7 p.m. If you wished to sit down and enjoy the marvelous evening as it unfolded in all its chocolate glory, you had the opportunity of purchasing a three course meal including any, or all, of the chocolate offerings. Lastly, if you went simply for the chocolate, the choice of general admission provided you with plenty of sweets. Although the admission prices were not specifically catered to a college student’s budget (ranging from $30 to $75), the Chocolate Lover’s Soiree was certainly a treat for all ages.

Accompanied by live music, the guests of the enchanted affair glided from one side of the  beautiful ballroom of the Bank Street Annex to the other, picking up a chocolate covered strawberry, here relishing in the sweet sensation of a bonbon there. While chocolate frosted the heart of the event, its admirers were provided the opportunity to socialize as well as help fundraise for the Easton Main Street Initiative, an organization that works with local business owners and the community to promote Downtown Easton’s tourism and healthy commerce.