March 4, 2006

Last year’s Oregon Chocolate Festival drew 12 vendors and 400 people ready for a taste. Daily Tidings file photo

Chocolate festival returns

By Jennifer Squires
Ashland Daily Tidings

It’s a sweet weekend to be in Ashland.

For two delectable days, the Oregon Chocolate Festival will satisfy the sweet tooth with artisan chocolates created by 15 chocolatiers from around the state.

Local favorites like Dagoba Chocolates of Ashland and Lille Bell Farms handmade chocolates from Central Point will available to taste, as will popular regional chocolate-makers like Moonstruck Chocolates from Portland and Goody’s, a Bend company with 20 years experience in the chocolate craft.

But the second annual event at the Ashland Springs Hotel promises to be more than just truffles and chocolate-covered fruit — as if that’s not enough. There will be wine and Italian sodas, locally-grown pears, chocolate cheeses and cheese tortas, hazelnuts, jams and baked goods at the chocolate fair in the hotel’s ballroom.

“It’s so huge,” said Karolina Wyszynska, the hotel’s publicity manager and festival creator. “Everybody’s involved.”

In total, the festival will feature 22 vendors at the chocolate-tasting event on Saturday and Sunday. The inaugural chocolate festival in 2005 included 12 vendors in a Friday night and Saturday schedule. About 400 people attended.

“Last year it was really only Ashland Springs Hotel, and that was it,” Wyszynska said.

But the chocolate connections reach far beyond the ballroom this year.

Next-door to the hotel, the Varsity Theatre will screen “Chocolat.” Across the street, Allyson’s of Ashland will offer a cooking class on the health and science of chocolate. On A Street, the Oregon Stage Works will play host to two showings of “Chocolate Confessions,” a one-woman musical comedy, and, down East Main Street a couple miles, ScienceWorks will explore the science and mystery of chocolate all weekend.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mount Ashland, three wineries and several local restaurants are also offering specials in conjunction with the chocolate event.

The Ashland Springs Hotel will also host four chocolate seminars that cover the health benefits of chocolate, how to pair chocolate and wine, the use of chocolate in cosmetology and a lesson in the history of chocolate, varieties and how to buy smart.

Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 225 or jsquires@dailytidings.com.