Tucked away on a street corner in Menewsha, there is a little Chocolaterie. Of course, it’s busiest times are the run-up to festivals. Easter, all those eggs. Christmas, stocking fillers. Hallowe’en, toffee applies and gingerbread ghosts.

But now the display window is set for Valentine’s Day. The evening light glints and dazzles bright red off the foil of chocolate hearts scattered across a sweep of red velvet. There’s a tilted basket of Florentines, trays of rose and violent creams with crystallised petals pricking the tops. Boxes all wrapped up with red and gold, pink and purple ribbons. A jar of heart-shaped red lollies, like rubies, to attract the tastes of sweet-toothed children. And to top it all off, right in the centre, a layered cake with painstakingly tempered and moulded white chocolate roses. Everything’s set for the run-up to Valentine’s.

The bell above the doorframe tinkles cheerfully when you open the door, alerting the customers already seated in easy chairs and stools, a whole array of hotchpotch seating, of the new arrival. Then Chai ducks round, licking chocolate off her fingers, and quickly proffers you her other, unlicked hand in a warm welcome.

Hullo everybody!

:3 I plucked up the courage to make a thread, and this is it! A Chocolaterie seemed fitting, considering the nature of the event.

Please, pull up a chair! Would you like a cappucino? Latte? Mocha? Americano? Flat White? Decaf? Tea? (Don't get me started on all the types of tea, when I know I can't think of half the coffee on the spot! xD) Hot chocolate? Cocoa? With or without sugar?

Chocolate? Biscuit? Whatever you like!

This is a thread for chocolate lovers (or loathers) and fun conversation. Just be your nice selves, and I'm pleased to have you! : D <3

*Runs up to the Chocolaterie. . . thingie. . .

You mind pouring me a mocha? :D

And do you have croissants? I LOVE croissants. :D

I think we can certainly have croissants! : D

I like the almond ones best, or dipping pan au chocolat in hot chocolate. Yumyumyum.

*puts one on a plate and pours Windy a mocha* ;3

>__< I can't believe I know two people who won't eat chocolate...

@Latte: Yaaay! *Munches happily*

And you know people that DON'T EAT CHOCOLATE!?

Chocolate is really quite good for you if there's the right amount of cocoa in it. Anti-oxidants. Yay.

This makes me want to go boil some chocolate fondu downstairs and dip strawberries in it. @___@; YUM.

*flutters in* Hello, Vanille XD Is it alright if I still call you that? And how are you doing?

I'll have a cappuccino, please, and a croissant would be lovely XD

*Waves to Asahi!* Hiii!

And good choice. I could live off of croissants if there was nothing else in the world. They're so deliciously fluffy. <3

Well, raw cacao is good for you in moderation. Like Windy said, it has antioxidants but also quite a bit of fat. >.>
But the processed stuff is pretty much junk.

Do you offer smoothies?

@Windy - I know! It seems ridiculous, and neither of them are allergic. One didn't eat it for ages because it was too rich for her. The other... I don't know why, she likes it, and she makes chocolate cakes for people's birthdays, and made us all truffles for Christmas (they were soo~oo good), but won't have any herself. ;~; I don't pester as to why.

I had a cup of Green and Black's cocoa. xD My mum yells at me every time I do, because it's HER COOKING COCOA. Well, tell me why it gives instructions how to make it into a drink on the back? ;3

I love it bitter. <3

@Kumoru - ^ ^ Sure you can, it's still food-obsessed, is it not? xD Actually, I'm Frothy Crema on Gaia now, but Mist probably still calls me Vanille. I don't mind whichever! ^.^

It's great to see you here! How are you? We still need to chat about RPing sometime. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have enough time to do anything properly for the next two weeks (I'm skiing the week after next - HOLIDAY! YAY! : D)

*sorts out your order* :3

@Suki - Hullo to you too! : D

Mmm, but it's not one of the bad fats, is it? There are good fats and bad fats. I can't imagine a plant has the bad fats like you get from overly-processed meat?

When I was in Tobago with my Nanna, we brought Carob balls, which you grated into hot water to make a hot chocolate-like drink. It tasted really good and earthy - I think I may still have one in a tin somewhere. I liked just sitting there and sniffing them. So good.

AND we drove through a rainforest, and my Granddad stopped to look for cocoa pods for me, but none of them were ripe. :c Maybe next time.

I'm pretty sure we can cope with smoothies. What would you like in it? : D

Well, it's not a bad fat but it's fat none the less and too much of it can be bad.

Carob has much less fat then cacao but a different flavor similar to it so even though I believe it has less antioxidants it's a good alternative considering fats.
I bet that chocolate drink taste so good...I wish I could have some.

You got to go through a rain forest? ;_;
That sounds like so much fun compared to being in Oklahoma all the time. Oklahoma is pretty but you know...

Yay! I would like mango, banana, strawberry, and papaya with a little fresh squeezed orange juice please. ;D

They're not really in season if you're in England like me, but since we're in Mene... ; D

*pops the fruit in the blender and puts the lid on* >3<

I haven't been to Oklahoma (but I like saying it, it makes nice sounds :3), but when we were in the Cook Islands we ate virtually nothing but Paw Paw. It's such a creamy fruit. Yum in a smoothie, I'll bet.

*pours it out into a tall glass* Straw? : D

I just love what I know of the history of chocolate. The Aztecs and the Mayans and the food of the Gods and all that. :3

The other good thing about carob is it doesn't kill Gods. It's actually funny, I think, how Theobromine is toxic to almost everything except humans. But it's awful when people don't know that and think their pet deserves a treat (if it's a dog, I'm sure they'd prefer a meaty biscuit or something!) and only learn about it AFTER they have to go to the vet's. @__@

@Windy - Hello! How are you? And I agree, croissants are wonderful. I love how you can eat them with just about anything.

@Vanille - Yeah, we definitely do~ Drop me a PM or an IM or whatever when you have the time. I have a lot more free time this semester than I did last semester, so I should be much easier to pin down XD;

Have fun skiing =o I've only ever gone once, myself, so I'm fabulously bad at it. I wouldn't mind trying again sometime, though.

Yeah, anything can happen in Mene. xD

I never really though about what it sounds like. But I guess it is rather pretty. It means "land of the red people"...such a sad history. D;

I've never had Paw Paw. I love creamy fruit so yes, I bet it would make an awesome smoothie. I bet I couldn't find that fruit anywhere near here. *sighs*
];

Yes, please. Straws make every better. :3

I don't know very much if anything about the history of chocolate.
It's so sad when people feed their dogs chocolate. A friend in elementary school did once and her dog died. I never did because everyone always told that dogs can't eat chocolate or they'd die. 0.x
So, I was cautious about that. My sister once fed our bunny chocolate though...He seemed fine, but she never did it again. I believe it was some of a snickers bar.

@Kumoru - I certainly will! ^ ^

I keep on popping into Nightgaunt's thread, but I must have missed you if you've posted since... xO

@Suki - I'm a mine of useless information. It figures that I should have picked up a little about chocolate. ;3 Actually, this whole thread was an impulse after reading Joanne Harris's Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes, which are all about chocolateries. And magic. ; D

My uncle says he keeps giving his dog chocolate. He lives in Belgium, but it must be really milky stuff and only a little, because his dog is ancient. I was surprised when I learnt about the dogs and chocolate thing that he was still alive. @__@ My uncle spoils that dog.

If you've had Papaya, you've had Paw Paw. xD I think I was just being difficult giving it that name. Paw Paw just sounds cute, Papaya sounds exotic. We ate a lot of coconut there too. :3 And fish. And swam in the sea every day, although Iwasscaredoftheseacucumbers. Dx And there were hibiscus, and aah...

Wow, I don't think I could just read about chocolate for too long, but the magic part would certainly help. x3

Let's hope he isn't literally spoiling his dog. o.O
But if the dog is still alive then maybe he's immune to it. xD

Really? I thought paw paw was just similar in appearance to papaya but a different fruit.
I haven't had coconut is a long time and the kind we get at a local grocery store just isn't very good. I want young coconut.
Was the sea water clear? I would like to swim in clear water so much. It's no fun when you can't even see your hand in front your face in the water.

I think Paw Paw is interchangeable with Papaya - they treated the names like they were over there, but I don't know for sure. @__@

Young coconut is lovely, but I got the water on my T-shirt when my Granddad hacked one open, and it stains so terribly! xO And the mango and tamarind trees! The mangos are so small and stringy, but really sweet. I hope my Nan brings some over when she next visits. >3< We still have a coconut husk in the downstairs toilet we brought back. 8D

Jellied and sugared tamarinds, sweet or sour, and peanut-brittle-type thing, coconut ice... There's several sweet shops outside the airport that sell all these things.

xD; For somebody who doesn't have a huge appetite, I remember a lot about food!

We had lunch in a treehouse once. : D With the birds.

The sea water was clear (I'm back in Tobago now) depending on what beach you went to. Castara Bay was all churned up and sandy because it was a blustery day, and a bit chilly too. And on another beach the pebbles and sand sloped suddenly, and in those conditions it was pretty dangerous for us, since we were only little. But Pigeon Point (which my Grandad doesn't like because you have to pay for, and he thinks the beaches should be free) is, well... postcard perfect. xD It's only waist-deep out to the reef, I'll bet, with white sands. Glorious blue. And I'm always going to be more interested in ducking under and saying hello to all the fishes (but not the sea cucumbers; it was clear in the Cooks, Raratonga, too, but that's a problem when you have sea cucumbers lying there so motionless you swear they're going to jump at any moment!) Grandad's promised to take my snorkelling to find manta rays some time. o3o

The UK coast is probably less exciting where I am, and certainly murky (but great for rockpooling.) About the most interesting thing I know of HAS to be cuttlefish.

Pawpaws are different from papayas. I know they're native to Virginia; we have some in my yard back home XD I haevn't had one yet, though, 'cause our trees aren't big enough to have fruit yet, I don't think. I hear they are tasty, though.

And yeah, I've been kind of off of Mene recently. Haven't been feeling well, so it kind of got me off of my RP groove ^^;

Thank you for clearing that up for me you two. :3 According to Wiki, pawpaws are native to the US, but the name is also applied to the unrelated papaya in other parts of the world (like the Cook islands, obviously xD.)

So I don't think I know what pawpaw-pawpaws taste like! I hope your tree grows big enough quickly.

Are you feeling better now? :,c

Coconut water is the best water there is though but I can't seem to drink it unless it's in a smoothie because some stuff gets in it and if it's gonna be water there can't be anything else in it.
I haven't even heard of tamarind. Mango is my favorite and it's sure to taste better there than in Oklahoma.

I don't really get hungry, I just love to eat. It's fun.

I wish I could have been there. It sounds so exciting and relaxing at the same time.

Tamarinds, as far as I understand, are trees that produce gooey seedpods that taste REALLY good. We tried growing some of the seeds from the fruits, but some little bug got into them and they died. :c

I may try again in the future.

xD The strange thing is, I can't usually stand hot climes. We're fortunate to have travelled a lot, and I virtually died in Cyprus... though actually I enjoyed it a fair bit (especially the museum, which was cool in the two ways) but for some reason, I found Tobago and Raratonga okay. I still prefer mountains. x3;

I hope you get to travel to such places some time, if that's what you want to do! : o

Stupid little bug. Dx

I would like to grow some too although I imagine they need a lot of of sun so I don't if it could get enough in my yard.

I would really like to travel to all those places. The farthest place I've been to is Cozumel, Mexico which wasn't fun. I want to go to Europe, Korea, Japan, and a lot of places but there are so many beautiful places in Europe.
I love mountains too. There are some in Oklahoma but I've never actually seen them. I want to do that some day too.

The bits of Europe I've been to have made lots of great memories! I'd love to go to Japan as well, though - and Hong Kong. ; D I may stay with my schoolfriend there, because she boards in the UK, but goes back to Hong Kong every Summer/Christmas/occasionally Easter. :3

I'm just finishing off sleeping, then I'm going to sleeeep. xO

I'll probably have to drag the thread out of the depths of obscurity tomorrow evening. xD;

Edit: Sleeping then going to sleep? I meant fishing. xD; I must be really tired.

So sorry I ventured off! My internet connection isn't being very nice to me, and Menewsha is lagging as well with WAY too many people on it. . .

But I'm here again. :3

Hong Kong would be very busy. I'd want to spend so much money. :O

I'm going to church in a little bit.
Maybe by tomorrow you'll have some art. My sister is going to draw your avatar. :3

Hong Kong is a lot of fun XD It's huge and busy. Everything's always moving. And there are a ton of places to shop. I don't think I used a single subway station that didn't have a shopping mall with at least 5 stories on top of it XD;; They have cool museums there, too.