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Make & Take Chocolate At C.H. Booth Library

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When C.H. Booth Library Young Adult Librarian Kim Weber asked the group of students at the August 2 "Make & Take Chocolate for Teens" presentation in the library's Meeting Room how many of them like chocolate, nearly every hand in the room was raised.

Ms Weber shared her excitement with the group to have Kim Larkin of Klassic Kreations at the library for the presentation.

Ms Larkin, who lives in Cheshire, told the group that she is an art teacher and she shared how she started selling chocolate creations with her sister.

After asking the students if any of them had ever tempered chocolate before, Ms Larkin explained the process of heating chocolate and preparing it to be molded.

"Baking is precise and so is chocolate making," said Ms Larkin.

Before the students began decorating and working with chocolate themselves, Ms Larkin shared some aspects of chocolate's history. The students learned that Aztecs first worked with chocolate, and the Spanish learned about chocolate from the Aztecs. Through trade, chocolate slowly made its way around the world, according to Ms Larkin.

"All the chocolate in the world is harvested by hand... by machete, by people climbing in the trees," Ms Larkin said, adding that roughly 450 to 650 cocoa beans are needed to make one pound of commercial chocolate.

Activities at the event included decorating Oreo Thins that were already covered in white chocolate, learning how to dip marshmallows in chocolate, making chocolate pretzel bark, and, finally, making truffles.

After handing out the white chocolate-covered Oreo Thins, Ms Larkin said the students could use icing to decorate the small sweet discs as emojis. The students also had the option of using things like sprinkles to decorate the first snacks of the day.

Kim Larkin of Klassic Kreations speaks at the C.H. Booth Library's "Make & Take Chocolate For Teens" event. (Bee Photo, Hallabeck)
Madison Hitchcock holds her Oreo Thin decorated as an emoji, using icing. Students learned other chocolate-making techniques at the library on August 2. (Bee Photo, Hallabeck)
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