chocopalooza

I have long had something of a love affair with chocolate. Over the years I learned the difference between “corporate” chocolate and CHOCOLATE. Good, gourmet, all-natural-ingredients chocolate. Chocolate the way it was MEANT to be.

As luck or fate would have it, there was a wide array of genuine chocolatiers in my little community; true artisans of the bean, and I decided to see if they wanted to partner with me to throw a little party. For the next eight years we brought together the best of the community’s artists working in myriad mediums and the finest purveyors of genuine, decadent cacao for a shop-local event that became a fixture of the community each February. Dozens of local vendors, selling handmade art and goodies drew hundreds of people out of their homes even in the worst weather South Dakota had to offer to indulge in a pre-Valentines Day festival of art and CHOCOLATE my marvelous sister dubbed Chocopalooza.