1,000 pieces of chocolate

Imagine being surrounded by 1,000 pieces of chocolate – and not just any chocolate. Handmade, hand-rolled, handcrafted chocolate from some of the best chocolatiers in Converse County.
Welcome to the Converse County Library’s 8th Annual Chocolate Festival, held Feb. 8 at the Glenrock Library, where folks were surrounded by scrumptious chocolate delicacies.
Sixteen entries competed for top-tier chocolate bragging rights Saturday, judged by Karen Rimmer, Jan Pope, Sally Ann Shurmer and Wendy Anderson.
By 2 p.m., the venue was packed nearly to the rafters with the amount of people vying to get inside, who were all excited to fill their plates with the variety of decadent, scrumptious chocolate treats out for the tasting. The event was free but donations to the Herders’ high school culinary team were suggested.
“Congratulations to all of our participants – every piece of chocolate was thoroughly enjoyed. Sixteen entries, 1,000 chocolate samples and not a single piece of chocolate left! I’d say that our 8th Annual Chocolate Tasting was a success!” Glenrock Branch Library Manager Jennifer Kofoed said.
This popular event’s been held annually for eight years, but this is the first time the Glenrock Library has had the opportunity to play hostess.
Residents were invited to stop by the library’s meeting space to taste the chocolates and vote for their favorite, known as the “People’s Choice.”
“We were excited to see such a great turnout at the event. We had at least 160 people come out and despite the fact that we had almost 1,000 chocolate samples we ran out of chocolate in 45 minutes. In the previous seven years we’ve never run out of chocolate! We’ll have to take that into consideration for next year,” she explained.
Kofoed said the event wouldn’t have been such a rousing success without assistance from the high school culinary team and donors Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, The Merry Peddler Kitchen Store, Hardware Hank, Glenrock Herders Culinary Team, Reid’s Red Hots, The Paisley Restaurant/Pub, Texas Roadhouse, Donell’s Candies and Blend Coffee & Co. who donated prizes and other goodies.
“This year we had the privilege of collaborating with the high school culinary club. They helped tremendously throughout the event and were able to collect donations towards their upcoming competition. It was a great turnout for our community and we’re excited to see what next year brings for this annual event,” she said.