Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate

The weekend before Valentine’s Day is a delicious delight for the senses at the 15th annual Chocolate Affaire. This chocolate-lovers dream of an event, Road Trips Foodies, takes over downtown Glendale, Arizona, from February 4 through 6, 2011.

Chocolate purveyors from across the nation gather in Glendale for this festival, which celebrates not only chocolate, but romance and the arts as well (more on that in a minute!). Chocolate confections will include everything from chocolate truffles, sweet potato fries with chocolate and brown sugar glaze and tropical hot chocolate, to deep-fried chocolate bars and organic dark chocolate.

The Chocolate Affaire is sponsored by Cerreta Candy Company, 5345 West Glendale Avenue, Glendale, Arizona. The factory will offer tours all weekend, so visitors can get a behind-the-scenes look at how the chocolatiers create candy. Shuttles will be available to the tours. (Note: if you can’t get to Glendale for the Chocolate Affaire, you still can tour Cerreta’s. They offer tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.)

Now, about that romance: the Chocolate Affaire has become a gathering point for romance novelists — so much so, that there’s a symposium of literary romantics that offers fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with authors, as well as the chance to attend free writing workshops given by the experts. And, art? The city’s annual Plein Air Painting Event takes place on the Saturday of the festival.

Event hours are 5 to 10 p.m. February 4, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. February 5 and noon to 5 p.m. February 6. Chocolate Affaire is held in Murphy Park, 58th and Glendale avenues, Glendale, Arizona.

For more information on visiting this part of Arizona, go online.

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