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6 Fun Things to do in Asheville in Spring!

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While every season is beautiful in Asheville spring is definitely one of my favorites.  It may not offer the majestic grandeur of falls leaf season but along with the subtle beauty of soft green buds on trees come less crowds and less brush and briars to wade through while hiking in the woods.  Here are 6 fun things to do in Asheville in spring that you may not be able to do, or enjoy quite as much during other seasons.

A Dahlia sculpted from chocolate. As beautiful as it is delicious.

Check out some amazing flowers at the North Carolina Arboretum.

The North Carolina Arboretum offers a variety of ways to enjoy springs blooms.  You could check out the Western North Carolina Orchid Society’s Annual Show on March 29th and 30th, or the Dahlia and Mum show on May 10th, or just stroll around the cultivated gardens and hiking trails.  Whatever you decide to do at the Arboretum will be very affordable as admission is just $12.00 per vehicle (even to the plant shows!).

Hike!
The wonderful thing about early spring hiking in Asheville is the dense underbrush and foliage hasn’t had a chance to grow yet so everywhere you hike you can still get a nice view.  Save the mountain balds like Black Balsam and Max Patch for summer and fall and get out now to enjoy the last few moments of winter and spring views while you can!  A favorite close to town hike I recommend that will afford nice pre-leaf views is Rattlesnake Lodge.  An added bonus of this hike is that its access is not on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is often still closed this time of year.  Other good spring views can be found all over Hickory Nut Gorge.  I recommend hiking the Florence Nature Preserve a recently opened section of trail managed by the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy.

Zip Line at Navitat.

Beat the summer crowds and explore the forest in a new exciting way!  Navitat, located a short drive north of Asheville, features an amazing zip line experience including sky bridges and rappelling.  A great way to enjoy the outdoors and catch some mountain views… especially fun for kids.

Everything in our Easter display is edible! The “desert sand” is made of brown sugar, graham crackers crumbs, and finely ground chocolate. Maybe we should call it “dessert sand?”

Check out the Easter Displays at The Chocolate Fetish.

Occasionally spring can be a little rainy in Asheville so when your outdoor adventures are stifled by April showers come downtown and check out the Easter displays at The Chocolate Fetish.  From chocolate bunnies riding motorcycles down a road made of sprinkles to a Cowboy bunny shoot out in a brown sugar dessert our whimsical chocolate bunnies and hand decorated Easter Eggs are sure to bring out the kid in everyone.  While you’re here be sure to walk around to the back and check out the chocolatiers at work in our glassed in kitchen.  If you’re lucky you’ll get to see one of our talented artist/chocolatiers hand sculpting a one of a kind Smash Cake or Chocolate Sculpture.  Best hours to see chocolatiers at work are between 11 and 3.
Enjoy a meal on an Asheville Patio.
Once summer’s heat soaks in and droves of tourists descend on Asheville enjoying a meal al fresco losses its allure.  A cool spring day with ample sun shine affords the perfect opportunity to enjoy an outdoor meal in one of Asheville’s myriad patio dining establishments.  For patios with great atmosphere and cocktails I recommend The Southern or Mayfel’s courtyard.  For fabulous food try the patio at Carmel’s.
Attend the Asheville Herbal Festival.
In its 25th year the Asheville Herbal Festival is the place to find all the seedlings and starts you need for your herb and vegetable garden.  Held at the Western North Carolina Farmer’s Market on May 2, 3, and 4 the Herbal Festival hosts a plethora of vendors from around Western North Carolina featuring culinary and medicinal herbs, veggie starts, a beekeeping demonstration, master gardeners and more.  It’s a great place to find a Mother’s Day present (to go along with a box of chocolate from The Chocolate Fetish) and it’s free!

Our NEW website is here!

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As many of you have already discovered we have recently launched our new and improved website! www.chocolatefetish.com  All of us at The Chocolate Fetish hope you’ll take the time to look around and get to know it.  We’re still working on perfecting it and ironing out the wrinkles and we’d love to hear your feedback. 

With the launch of the new website comes the re-launch of our blog.  There is a saying in business, “work on your business, not in your business.”  Being a small family run operation its easy to get caught up in the day to day and well let’s admit it I love to get my hands on some chocolate and enjoy getting to meet all the customers that frequent our shop more than I love to sit in an office and type.  However, I know how much all our fans want to know what’s going on behind the scenes so I’m going to make sure to keep you updated once or twice a week from now on.  I hope that this blog can become a dynamic place with readers anxiously awaiting each week’s post and giving us lots of feedback.  We’d love to get your input about what you want to hear about in our chocolate blog so please don’t be shy!

Here are some highlights from our new website that you should be sure to check out!  First of all you can now order a custom box of our Ecstasy Elite Truffles.  This line features our ever expanding selection of seasonal flavors so be sure to keep checking back often to see what we are featuring.  As fall is quickly approaching we will soon be offering our Pumpkin Pie Truffles and our Maple Walnut Carmel Cups, yum!  Another favorite feature of the new site is our Caramels & Frogs page… no more searching for that assorted box of Sea Salt Caramels!  Also on our Caramels and Frogs page is a brand new caramel assortment that has a nice selection of all our different caramel products including a personal favorite, Almond Caramel Cups.  I just can’t get enough of these delicious delicacies… a thin dark chocolate shell encases a liquid caramel wrapped accented by lightly salted slivered almonds.  How many times can I write yum! in one blog post?

Have you seen our hand decorated Chocolate Shoes?  Now featuring a page of their own you can purchase a variety of our chocolate shoes right from our website.  All hand decorated by our talented chocolatiers we are offering our Chocolate Shoes in Cowboy Boots, Contemporary High Heels, and our NEW Animal Print High Heel Shoes.  Be sure to check out the photo gallery to see a small selection of the creativity and whimsy our chocolatiers bring to our Chocolate High Heel Shoes.

Be sure to check out our updated selection of Chocolate Rounds.  I know when I look at that beautiful photography I instantly begin to crave some chocolate (luckily I have it close at hand).  The last thing you want to be sure to check out is our new and improved Chocolate Dictionary complete with videos.  Careful not to drool on your tablet or keyboard as you expand your chocolate knowledge and enjoy listening to the incredibly sensuous voice of Peter, the lovely man that provided the video voice-overs.

Don’t forget to share your feedback and keep an eye out for interesting upcoming blog posts including my recent adventures in beer and chocolate pairing in Asheville!