Pechanga Chocolate Decadence Festival 2016 - recap

Ever been to a chocolate festival? How much better would it be if wine were involved?

We were invited to Pechanga Resort and Casino to check out the Chocolate Decadence festival on Friday February 26, 2016. The event is held in the Pechanga Grand Ballroom. General admission tickets let us enter at 7pm and those with VIP could get in as early as 5:30! There was also designated driver tickets available though all guests are required to be 21+.

Within 10 minutes of the general admission time, there were already 40 people lined up, eager to enter! No worries though because there was more than enough chocolate to go round! I'd call this a Vegas buffet... dessert style!

plate of desserts at pechanga chocolate decadence

Buy a wine & cheese plate for $5 to support the selected charity Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley! This holds everything very well as you can see above! We also saw people who brought their own wine and cheese plates, some of which were pretty fancy.

chocolate candy station at pechanga chocolate decadence

We stepped into the room and noticed several dessert stations around the room, each with their own centerpieces! This one is the chocolate candy station! The wines were lined up along the walls of the room but we of course headed straight toward the sweet decadence awaiting us!

crepe station at pechanga chocolate decadence

This station had an ice sculpture and a crepe station! A man to the left provided ice cream to go with the freshly made crepes!

candy displays at pechanga chocolate decadence

Another pretty centerpiece. It was surrounded by all kinds of tempting desserts!

chocolate fountain fun at pechanga chocolate decadence

A chocolate fountain to dip snacks! There was also a white chocolate fountain!

snacks for dipping in chocolate at pechanga chocolate decadence

Plenty of options for using with the chocolate fountains!

cupcakes at pechanga chocolate decadence

Platters of cupcakes!

macarons at pechanga chocolate decadence

Plates of macarons!

tower of cake cones at pechanga chocolate decadence

Cake cones tower! And so much more!

dessert samplers at pechanga chocolate decadence

We definitely tried quite a lot of desserts that night! All were from the Pechanga bakery.

After desserts, we explored the rest of the room.

dashing gentlemen with wine at pechanga chocolate decadence

I loved these dapper men showing off Rosa Regale wine!

pallini limoncello and gozio amaretto at pechanga chocolate decadence

We have a mini bottle of this lemoncello at home so it was cool to see a full bottle! The other item Gozio was a strong amaretto liqueur.

nimble nectar at pechanga chocolate decadence

One of our favorite samples was from Kalifornia Distiller. These two flavored Nimble nectar cocktails were so enjoyable!

blanc de bleu at pechanga chocolate decadence

Isn't this such an eye-catching bottle from Blanc de Bleu? 

bel vino at pechanga chocolate decadence

Bucket of wine bottles from Bel Vino Vineyard.

There were quite a couple of wineries to try! We won't bore you with a gazillion pictures so just trust us on that!

coffee station at pechanga chocolate decadence

For those who enjoy coffee, there was a station for you too! Chocolate goes with coffee right?

fuji water at pechanga chocolate decadence

They had FUJI WATER! This was awesome. Drink enough to keep hydrated!

raffle prize at pechanga chocolate decadence

Raffle tickets were available for a wine country escape and benefits the charity.

silent auction items at pechanga chocolate decadence

Silent auction fundraiser was another way to raise money for the charity!

live piano entertainment at pechanga chocolate decadence

There was also live music and other entertainment at the event!

There were enough stations and dessert options that we never had to wait long. The crepe station took a few more minutes since they were being freshly made. I guess the only downfall is that you can only eat so many sweets before you need a break. Our last chocolate adventure was For the Love of Chocolate in Escondido which had some savory items to help break up the sugar rush. Still, this event was well run and definitely a good activity for wine drinkers. And helping out a charity? Sounds good to me.

Official event information is available here. It includes info about the event, resort and Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley charity.

Disclaimer: We were provided tickets to the event but all opinions are my own

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Comments

soo @ hungryones.com's picture
Submitted by soo @ hungryones.com (not verified) on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 9:25am

Awesome party! I would overdose on chocolate if I went to a free chocolate party. I'd want to sample all the macaroon flavors and cake pop flavors. :-)

Email me if you wanna go to a free screening of Batman Thursday at 5:30pm.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 11:06am

we tried all 6 of the macaron flavors they had! i didn't post the picture here but i think i will be putting it on IG! (or add to the post later). ;)

Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table's picture
Submitted by Laura @ Sprint ... (not verified) on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 9:52am

Whoa. I'm pretty sure this happens in my version of heaven. LOL! That blue bottle of bubbly is gorgeous... did it taste good?

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 11:26am

my heaven would be filled with savory over sweet! i don't have any notes for the blanc de bleu but sparkling wines are generally lower on my list of likes.

ciara's picture
Submitted by ciara (not verified) on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 10:14am

Great pictures! Thanks.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Thu, 04/07/2016 - 2:38pm

Thanks! It was a great event!

Mary's picture
Submitted by Mary (not verified) on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 9:59am

I got invited to this but I wasn’t able to make it. Boo! Jake would have disliked this event since it’s so much sweet stuff but I would’ve been in sweet sweet sugar high heaven. The displays all look so pretty and delicious.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Thu, 04/07/2016 - 2:40pm

So. Many. Sweets. You need a BIG dessert stomach for this! A good amount of the same desserts were available at the event on the following day though.

Joleen @ Joleen Cuisine's picture
Submitted by Joleen @ Joleen... (not verified) on Mon, 04/04/2016 - 12:21am

This looks like my kind of party!! Love all the dessert displays :D

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Thu, 04/07/2016 - 2:41pm

It's decadent! Whooo!

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