On the left is neo-gothic Kranner's Fountain, and on the right rotunda of the Finding of the Holy Cross, a romanesque rotunda built in 12th century.
The theme of the meetup was chocolate, so a lot of people went with chocolate prints or brown pieces. Since I don't own anything like that, I opted for general sweets outfit with cakes and macarons and cupcakes in print!
| Dress:Angelic Pretty's Decoration Dream apron-style JSK |
| Blouse: Bodyline |
| Headbow, OTKs: Angelic Pretty |
| Pink bow: made by Yuki 💖 |
There was also this french lolita with gorgerous Triple Fortune outfit complete with one of those Triple Fortune bonnets!
We each got a cute welcoming package. At the time, we did not yet know how useful the macaron pens will be during the meetup.
We had banquet available with cakes and other baked goods, all in neat, small pieces, and drinks. The chocolate ones were delicious and not overly sweet, but between chocolate degustation, drinking hot chocolate, and these cakes, I bet people's desire for chocolate was satiated for upcomming month and beyond!
For me, the highlight of the meetup was a chocolate workshop we could sign in to in advance. We had the unique opportunity for a tour in a small chocolate factory in the back of the cafe, where they make their own chocolate products, and to create our own custom chocolate.
We got to hear some talk about history and processing of the chocolate beans. During the processing, the beans are divided into chocolate powder and chocolate butter. Which means, white chocolate containing chocolate butter is real chocolate too! Yay!
We got to taste the raw beans, and also the roasted beans. They tasted like a bitter, crunchy version of the cooking chocolate powder from stores. The guide said she likes to chew on the roasted chocolate beans instead of nuts when watching tv!
Then we tasted different kinds of chocolates and also got the ingredients to make our own. We got raw chocolate chips, chopped pecan nuts, chopped dried cherries, coconut, ginger, chilli, salt, and some sprinkles. We poured the chocolate into a mold, decorated with the ingredients, and handed it to the guide. Note! An important thing about making chocolate at home is correctly tempering the molten chocolate, which results in a smooth, nice surface when you remove it from the mold.
I put over my outfit a transparent one-use rain coat to protect it! Friends thought its fun, but it served the purpose. I put a lot of cherries into my chocolate, and also some chopped nuts, and a little bit of salt into one corner. When the chocolates were finished, we could pack them up. Of course I couldn't resist and bought also one of their own chocolates, with cinnamon and coffee.
And there were games and events! Aside the chocolate workshop, there was a raffle, a group knowledge contest, a chocolate themed word puzzle to fill, and activities point card!
| The points were given for |
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I really tackled it down and managed to finish everything including taking this chocolate selfie and won the contest! I hope I wasnt too enhtusiastic to be on everyones nerves, I was really happy to see everyone and it was wonderfully put together meetup! I'm looking forward to next years'!
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Now I really want some quality chocolate! It sounds like a wonderful meetup and so many have attended, it's amazing.
ReplyDeleteYeah there was so much delicious chocolates that by the time the workshop part was over, people already regretted they ordered hot chocolate before we left for the workshop, because they were full on various samples we got to taste! :)
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