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We had a wine tasting party last week in honor of Cupcake's 12th birthday. The guests were some of Cupcake's 12-year-old friends. Stop screaming. Step awaaay from the phone. Put down the rolling pin. It wasn't a real wine tasting party, but it was almost exactly identical to a wine tasting, except that we didn't swirl stuff around in our mouths and spit it out. Wanna know why? Because it was a chocolate tasting party. CHOCOLATE. TASTING. PARTY. 
Photo courtesy of KakaoChocolate.com, home of You Simply Would Not Believe How Yummy They Are sweets. Cupcake and six of her friends gathered at a one-of-a-kind, locally owned and operated, not-a-chain-store confectionery to explore the history of cacao and chocolate from its origins in Central and South America to its importation and introduction to the royal families of Europe and -- oh, who am I kidding? We spent 90 minutes tasting truffles. There is nothing -- NOTHING, I tell you -- to compare with handmade chocolates made from REAL butter, REAL cocoa, REAL vanilla, REAL cream. I think I might be off M&Ms forever. We had chile truffles (I think it should be chili but who am I to argue with someone plying me with chocolate?), lavender truffles, vanilla marshmallow truffles, chai truffles (my favorite), and caramel with sea salt not-truffles. In between courses the girls cleared their palates with sips of water and waved wildly to people walking by in the rain until the owner finally had to ask them to stop; I think he was afraid they'd scare away customers. At the end we gave everyone a chocolate mustache-on-a-stick and brought them home for a sleepover. Kidding. I'm not dumb enough to try to accommodate 7 abundantly sugared and caffeinated girls for the night. We sent them home. Chocolate. The best antidepressant EVER.
