Chocoholism

Where to Mediatate on Chocolate in a Yurt

We're feeling better already
We’re feeling better already Photo: John Loo/Flickr

Siddhartha may not have found spiritual redemption in pleasure and excess, but that’s no reason not to give it a go yourself. On November 17, Malibu’s Great Spirit Ranch will play host to The Chocolate Invitational Festival, ten-and-a-half hours of chocolate indulgence featuring ten chocolate makers set between (get this) a “yurt and teepee and rolling mountain side.” Every guest gets a single sample from each vendor, then the rest of the day to just stroll the grounds and sing Kumbaya and stuff. Throughout the day, a “living chocolate meditation” will be provided by a company called Intentional Chocolate, “designed to increase the awareness of the chocolate as well as to impart calmness and reduce stress and fatigue as a person learns more about building an intentional lifestyle.” That’s just the tip of this wacky iceberg, though.

Organizers also promise truffle making and bean-to-bar classes, live painting, chocolate art and film, booze providers, tea ceremonies, stilt walkers, and wandering troubadours. Once guests have reached sweet satiation and presumably, chocolate-induced diabetic shock nirvana, food trucks will arrive on the scene for an impromptu picnic and musical hootenanny. $45 tickets are now being sold online.

Where to Mediatate on Chocolate in a Yurt