Choc Fest in Notts and Derbys
On April 2003
Eager to begin the Mensa Choc Fest, our launch event was on 1st April with a 'film and fondue' evening. This involved watching the video of the award-winning film 'Chocolat' accompanied by a chocolate fondue. The event attracted 50:50 male:female (a somewhat rare occurrence) with 25% of attendees being a new member. A thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all.
In April the regular '5th of the month' pub social held at the Vat & Fiddle in Nottingham included a chocolate tasting with members joining us from as far away as Wigan, Lincoln and Rochester. We tried every type of chocolate imaginable from mint flavoured Mingles to the Norwegian equivalent of Rolos to Easter eggs and agreed that price does not really matter as most of us found Morrisons own-brand plain chocolate (26p per bar) as tasty as the rest.
On 9th April Merry Metcalf held a blind chocolate tasting at her home in Derbyshire. Having melted six varieties of chocolate bar into cubes so as to disguise any features we had to guess which was the Dairy Milk, Lindt, etc. Only chocolate connoisseur Linda Ward guessed all six correctly, but everyone identified the cooking chocolate. Thanks to Merry for her efforts in producing the interesting test. The evening continued with a game of Trivial Pursuit with each correct answer gaining the player a piece of chocolate. We also ate home-made chocolate chip cookies and drank delicious chocolate milk shakes.
On Saturday 12th April, Andy Farrell and I hosted a chocolate party and, whilst not fancy dress, many of the girls wore brown to fit in with the theme. Once again there were a variety of edible goodies to taste as well as white chocolate liqueur and chocolate vodka to drink. Throughout the evening small groups played the game of Kerplunk using their skill to win yet more chocolate! The 'instant win' prize actually went to the third person drawn from the hat as the first two declared they were on diets and didn't actually want to win 25 bars of chocolate supplied by Mars!
The following day there was Andy's birthday lunch aka 'chicken and chocolate' at Nando's restaurant in Nottingham. What Andy didn't realise was that the chocolate part of the meal would be a surprise birthday cake rather than anything from their menu! Thanks to everyone who attended one of our Choc Fest events. I hope you had as much fun as me, though I now don't want to see any more chocolate for quite some time! Perhaps we should have Mensa Fitness Fest next to combat the weight we all put on!?
Maxine Bates