We titled our seminars “Going Coco Loco”, and as the name suggests, we wanted people to think outside the box when it came to both chocolate and the wines and beers to serve with them. And that was the gist of our seminars as well - we knew everyone was going to go home from the festival bursting with chocolate-y ideas of what to serve to guests next weekend, but inevitably it was going to be either chocolate fondue or chocolate cake. Working with the culinary department, we developed a menu of chocolate-based foods that were perhaps outside the usual range of what you might think as chocolate.

If that wasn’t enough, we also decided that it would be way more fun to present chocolate-based foods rather than straight chocolate.ĭuring the weeks leading up to the event, Brewmaster students created six beers to pair with the food. (Britnie keeps a supply of Skittles on her desk, which I have to eat if I feel like Skittles, because even if I had a supply of Skittles on my desk, I’d never find them under all the papers.) The brilliant idea, undoubtedly fuelled by Skittles sugar, was that it would be much cooler if we joined forces and offer two identical seminars that would pair both beer and wine with various chocolate dishes. Shortly after receiving our Decadence seminar assignments, Britnie and I had a brilliant idea while we were munching on Skittles. I was asked to lead the seminar on beer and chocolate, and my counterpart in the wine education program, Britnie Bazylewski, was asked to handle the wine seminar. However, the organizers also wanted to offer a 1-hour seminar that would focus on chocolate-based foods and the college-brewed beers that could be paired with them, and a similar seminar pairing chocolate with college-made wines. This event is mostly a chance for the culinary department to show off - chocolate, after all, is the theme. A few weeks ago the college had a “Chocolate Decadence” festival.

Harpoon brewery barbecue festival