To ease everyone into a long weekend of hard partying, Hannah had arranged a lunch and tour of the local Sharffen Berger chocolate factory. After a couple of hours of delicious food and wine, and several minutes of working out the average cost and standard deviation of the items on the bill, we were guided into a mini lecture theatre where Danny the tour guide took us through the ins-and-outs of chocolate making.
Days like this are, of course, all about the tasting, and samples came in abundance - bittersweet, semisweet and milk varieties were passed around, and we were even allowed to sample a limited edition bar in the shop afterwards for being such a well behaved tour party.
The verdict? Well, it was good, but who can beat Cadbury's Dairy Milk?
Post-exam students and partners. See the aura of unstressedness.
A happy Daphny and an exhausted Elad.
Hopefuls for internships at the factory.
Shauli and Hannah toast exam success with hot chocolate.
Ha ha! Now I'm blogging Dana's own photos before she is. Victory!
Limited edition bars. There seems to be plenty to me.
Here are the cocoa seeds, fruit removed and fermented. The seeds are inside the fruit, which is inside the pod. By all accounts they taste nasty until they ferment, roast and thresh the whole lot.
Danny explains what's going on.
Elad looking sharp, and ready for the factory tour.
My new look.
Lots of pipes, and a machine called a conch.
Mad chocolate scientist at work.
Mad scientist's assistant...?
You see, it was all worth it in the end.
An orderly queue for more tasting.
