Salsa y chocolate

You know what latinos are really good at. Lovin'? Yeah. Salsa? Duh. But CHOCOLATE??
You wouldn't have thought, would you.

On Thursday night, Julian, Erminela and I attended our first-ever chocolate tasting event at Babson College. If you've done wine tasting before, you sort of know what it's like - minus the buzz. A plate with six different, delicious (albeit tiny) pieces of chocolate, crackers and water to cleanse your palate, accompanied by a rundown of the chocolate making process and input from Edison, a Quechua from Ecuador. The Kallari initiative works with the local cocoa farmers and makes sure that (unlike all other chocolate producers, even FairTrade!) ALL revenues flow back into the region. Also, dark chocolate is actually healthy! It lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol, and can prevent heart desease and even cancer. So throw out the Hershey Bars, this is the real thing!

The Latin mood continued when Meaghan and I met a bunch of her friends on Saturday for dinner and salsa at the Havana Club. A large ball-room, live music, classes to brush up on your rusty merengue, and largely creep-free dancing until the early hours of the morning. Who needs gyms when you can work your legs, hips and abs on the dance floor? Trust me, you work them. I realized when I limped home from Meaghan's house the next morning - after a delicious omelette breakfast, of course. You've got to stock up on calories.

And, speaking of calories, I had the most enjoyable project group meeting ever yesterday when we headed down to Harvard Square to conduct some market research interviews at Burdick's Chocolate Cafe.

Of course, some extensive product tasting was in order.