Chocolate Extravaganza!!!
We followed the crowds up Kennebunk Town Hall's icy stone steps. The multicolored balloons and bright pink sign proclaiming "Chocolate Extravaganza!!!" stood out against the muddy slush and gray sky. Live music blared from inside. We waited for our turn to walk through the heavy double doors leading to the auditorium as children pulled their parents into the cavernous hall overflowing with bundled "we'll just stay for a moment" or un-bundled families, coats piled in an unused corner. Toddlers weaved among the clowns onstage and danced pudgy-armed, stomping little dances to music that was vaguely 80s.
Then we came upon the booths. The first table had a sign up sheet for Girl Scout cookies, Hershey kisses strewn next to pictures of aptly named Brownies selling Thin Mints.
Curious.
The next booth was for a real estate company. They had tiny Dove chocolate bites.
A hair salon had chocolate dipped strawberries, and one very popular table had a whirring fountain of chocolate where people took their turn dipping a marshmallow on a stick into the flowing, sticky brown shower.
There were young girls and women with an inch of makeup and perfectly blown out hair handing out flyers for beauty pageants to other young girls.
We picked up a Hershey's kiss here and there, elbowed our way through the crowd, past the line of (mostly) adults holding their marshmallows like swords, and stumbled back down the icy steps of the town hall. 80s music followed us down the slushy street.
We had been expecting a fancy assortment of gourmet chocolates. Delicate truffle samples placed in tiny paper cups or elaborately arranged on a crystal cake stand. Vendors plying their trade of sweetness while white gloved patrons became overwhelmed with samples. Fountains of gourmet dark chocolate rippling next to the 10 foot tall chocolate lighthouse (which was really a cardboard model with a Hersheys bar as a window- but it did have a working light!!).
Well, not really. But we did expect some of the great local chocolate makers giving out bars of chipotle milk chocolate or sea salt dark chocolate. Perhaps a truffle or two.
What we got was a little nibble of a January community get-together, bringing a bit of sweetness to an icy cold day in Maine.
Then we came upon the booths. The first table had a sign up sheet for Girl Scout cookies, Hershey kisses strewn next to pictures of aptly named Brownies selling Thin Mints.
Curious.
The next booth was for a real estate company. They had tiny Dove chocolate bites.
A hair salon had chocolate dipped strawberries, and one very popular table had a whirring fountain of chocolate where people took their turn dipping a marshmallow on a stick into the flowing, sticky brown shower.
There were young girls and women with an inch of makeup and perfectly blown out hair handing out flyers for beauty pageants to other young girls.
We picked up a Hershey's kiss here and there, elbowed our way through the crowd, past the line of (mostly) adults holding their marshmallows like swords, and stumbled back down the icy steps of the town hall. 80s music followed us down the slushy street.
We had been expecting a fancy assortment of gourmet chocolates. Delicate truffle samples placed in tiny paper cups or elaborately arranged on a crystal cake stand. Vendors plying their trade of sweetness while white gloved patrons became overwhelmed with samples. Fountains of gourmet dark chocolate rippling next to the 10 foot tall chocolate lighthouse (which was really a cardboard model with a Hersheys bar as a window- but it did have a working light!!).
Well, not really. But we did expect some of the great local chocolate makers giving out bars of chipotle milk chocolate or sea salt dark chocolate. Perhaps a truffle or two.
What we got was a little nibble of a January community get-together, bringing a bit of sweetness to an icy cold day in Maine.
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