It may come as no surprise that National Chocolate Month is celebrated in February. While a chocolate tasting event may fit into your schedule perfectly all year round, it’s an especially sensuous and delicious idea for a Valentine’s Day party.  

Quick decorating ideas

While you may find hearts, roses, pinks, reds, and frilly white lace a bit cliché, we associate these colors and themes with the holiday. Old habits are hard to break.

However, you can opt for untraditional colors. Break out of the mold and craft another color theme for your party decorations. If you want to stay away from the pinks you can opt for purple and silver or blue and gold for a decadent and elegant feel.

Balloons, lanterns, streamers, and pretty colored table cloths can set the mood and call attention to your beautiful chocolate buffet display.

Party preparations

Always keep your community demographic in mind as you plan your event. No matter which flavors you choose, you want it to resonate with residents and leave a positive impression.

***TIP*** When choosing your chocolate varieties, consider offering at least one or two allergy-friendly chocolate options for those that may be allergic to nuts or other ingredients.

There are many ways to celebrate the day, but sweets seem to be the go-to way of celebrating. Consider adding in a dessert potluck as part of your sampling party and encourage residents to bring a chocolate sweet dish of their choice to share.

For the main event, however, be sure to set out all the chocolates! Include white, milk, semi-sweet, dark, specialties, or even an import or two.

Image source: Pixabay

Image source: Pixabay

***BONUS*** You may even want to consider having raw or roasted cocoa beans (from which chocolate is crafted) available for sampling as well.

Exotic and unusual flavors - like those produced by boutique chocolatiers - can include truffles, fruit infused orange, banana, or pomegranate, mint, chili, bacon, turmeric, sea salt, curry, lime, caramel, and thousands of other unique and tantalizing flavors.

***TIP*** Break or chop the chocolate into small pieces to make sampling easier for your residents. Keep lots of napkins handy to make it easier for them to hold the slivers. Small pieces will encourage residents to really savor the unique flavors.

Also, neatly label all the plates of chocolate pieces so residents know what they are sampling and what to expect. Arrange the plates or trays by % cacao (from light to dark) with spicy specialties added to one side so residents won’t overwhelm their taste buds with the dark options right off the bat.

Image source: Pixabay

There are other ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day and chocolate - even for those residents who can’t attend the event.

One apartment community placed bags of cookies and hot chocolate on their residents’ doors with a small printable card that let them know they were loved and appreciated by the office staff. You can also place a few mini chocolate bars or Hershey’s kisses in small gift bags and hang them on door handles around your community to remind residents you care.

This event is sure to be sweet in more ways than one. It will give you great pictures and stories to share on social media, in newsletters, and with prospective residents for years to come.