Loco for Cocoa Festival

Festival Location: Alburtis, PA, USA

Festival State: Pennsylvanian Festivals

Festival Type(s): Food Festivals, Family Festivals

Loco for Cocoa Festival

By: © Tara Dodrill 2009

Chocolate lovers now have a festival to call their own in Alburtis, Pennsylvania. The Loco for Cocoa Festival will be held at the beginning of February each year with proceeds from this delicious festival going to benefit the Alburtis Borough Revitalization Program. The sweet smell of chocolate will float through the air enticing visitors to walk through the door and sample chocolates of all shapes and sizes. The chocolate tasting is free, and may lead to a heavenly form of gluttony.

Dessert chefs will have the opportunity to strut their stuff for awards and the love of the crowd. Contests, which will be held each year at the Loco for Cocoa Festival, will include a chocolate recipe contest with specific sweet division for a multitude of dessert styles. Festival contest divisions include cakes, chocolate cookies and chocolate candy. Vendors are invited to establish a booth at the festival each year, to sell their chocolate, and chocolate related items.

The fun does not end with only edible chocolate items at the Loco for Cocoa Festival. Calorie free chocolate items are also a favorite with visitors to the annual Pennsylvania festival. Chocolate themed items of all kinds are on display at the festival. Chocolate scented candles and corresponding home décor are popular items to browse during the annual one-day event. Booths and displays from chocolate industry corporations are also an anticipated highlight of the annual event. Hershey, Pennsylvania is the heart of the chocolate world, and is expected to be a spotlighted feature of the Loco for Cocoa Festival.

The Loco for Cocoa Festival is a family friendly event, and offers ample opportunity for the little ones to enjoy a day of sweet fun. Visitors to the festival will definitely need to hit the treadmill after the high intake of sugar, which will be consumed during the event. Festival organizers have parlayed their passion for chocolate into a wonderful way to raise funds for a worthy community project.

Both novice and professional chocolate bakers will enjoy the immense array of cooking tools, recipe books, and candy molds demonstrated and available for purchase at the event. Even the most avid chocolate lover or baker is bound to be surprised by the many ways chocolate are utilized, and shaped at the festival. Small and delicately embellished chocolates, stuff chocolate candies, and amazingly shaped molds of chocolates make this festival appear more like and art show than a tasting event.

Chocolate fudge garners a special section at the Loco for Cocoa Festival. Mouth-watering lines of visitors will surely enjoy the sweet taste of dozens of varieties of fudge melting in the mouth. Diabetic chocolate may also be a growing feature of the festival. Chocolate can also be used as an ornate container, housing little morsels of sweetness. By freezing dripped chocolate over a bowl, the dessert itself becomes a serving tray.

The Loco for Cocoa is a new and growing festival, which is sure to create quite a splash for those among us who have a sweet tooth. The festival is held at the Alburtis Area Community Center on West Second Street in Alburtis, Pennsylvania. Alburtis is located in Lehigh County.

by Tara Dodrill