Festival inspires dessert decadence

All day Saturday and far into the night, chocolate-covered zealots stalked through town, indulging their most shameful confectionery cravings. Many times, to the dismay of the calorically upright, they did so in full public view.

Ryan Duer from SOS Pear Station pours chocolate over a slice of a pear during this weekend’s Oregon Chocolate Festival at the Ashland Springs Hotel. See more in the Daily Tidings PHOTO GALLERY. Photos by Orville Hector | Daily Tidings

Diets were banished from Ashland this weekend as the Third Annual Oregon Chocolate Festival came to town.

The centerpiece of the weekend was the Chocolate Faire, which took place in the Ballroom of the Ashland Springs Hotel. Although focused, shockingly, on chocolate, the 20-plus vendors who took part also included farms, breweries and wineries.

Enough people attended the events this weekend to best the 800 from last year and the 466 who came the first year. What explains this chocolaty malfeasance? Is it merely the chocolate?

"'Merely' the chocolate?" asked an incredulous Jeff Shepherd, chocolatier and owner of Lillie Belle Farms in Jacksonville. "The word 'merely' doesn't apply to chocolate." Indeed, the crowds, and the purveyors both shred Shepherd's enthusiasm.

Five-year old Laurren Croyles takes a big bite of a chocolate delight at Pete’s Gourment Booth during the chocolate festival on Saturday.

Shepherd stood next to his truffula tree, a chocolate sculpture based on The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. The free samples Shepherd and his chocolaty cohort (and Lillie Belle general manager) De Ingbretson peddled included a sea salt and lavender caramel. As odd as that might sound, the flavors meshed superbly.

Along the same aromatic lane was the lavender fudge hawked by Scotty Dixon and his crew at Rogue Valley Fudge.

Tom Colee, chocolatier of Eugene's KeKau, showed off the sculpture he and chief chocolatier Shane Tracey had created the day before from 75 pounds of chocolate. It took 40 hours of work to create and assemble the sweeping mobile-formed statue on its sweet, dark plinth.

In addition to the cocoa-addled walk-around at the hotel, the festival provided additional activities, such as white chocolate on the ski slopes of Mt. Ashland, cooking classes at the hotel and the Ashland Food Coop and seminars and lectures of concern to those in the sweet sciences. (Topics included How Awesome Chocolate Is and, controversially, "Is Chocolate Awesome?" Turns out, yes. Yes, it is.) Local restaurants offered chocolate-themed dining opportunities and festival-connected savings.

Nadya Green, 9, samples a piece of chocolate at the festival Saturday.

In the foyer, K.C. Mahoney, Toni Scott and Tiffany Seguin sat, recovering from the first stage of their cocoa-fueled day. K.C. had taken Toni and Tiffany to the event as a duel birthday present. Plus, Tiffany had just gotten engaged.

"I'm on the lookout for things I can use for my wedding," said Tiffany, a rock on one hand and chocolate stains on the other. The trio thought most of the visitors were locals. K.C. said she thought the steady growth of the event was due in part to Southern Oregonians passing on their accounts from previous festivals.

Michele Becker from Rogue Ales pours a sample at the Ashland Springs Hotel during the Chocolate Festival.

Now, no doubt, the town will take a day or two off, to work through its sugar-frosted, goo-filled hangover. With any luck, the resultant shame will inspire a storm of repentance to equal the sybaritic enthusiasm of this weekend's post-lapsarian crowds.