From time to time (before the current diet) I have visited the Ethel M Factory and Cactus Garden and its gift shop. Sadly, Ethel M chocolates are not part of the current eating plan so it’s been awhile… until last week.

A note in the newspaper reminded readers that the third Thursday of the month is special at Ethel M. “Decadence in the Desert” runs from 4 to 9 p.m. On tap are local artists, food trucks, a free stroll in the cactus garden AND for $9.99 (actually $10 plus tax) one can participate in an Ethel M Tasting Experience. After reading the newspaper note and remembering I was curious when I read about the tasting, I decided journalism was calling me (not to mention the prospect of a carbohydrate or two).

The Ethel M parking lot wasn’t full when I arrived, but fuller than usual. Two food trucks were parked near the M&M store entrance. Music by a DJ was playing, and a small number of booths had been set up outside the factory buildings. The booths featured craft items, many, if not most of them made in the Las Vegas Valley. Attracting attendees were hand-made wooden toys, hand-made hair bows, salt-and-pepper sets made from beer cans, decorated horseshoes, necklaces made from scrabble tiles, hand-made note cards (does anybody use those in the era of email?) and hand-made jewelry.

The tasting experience is what had intrigued me. I waited for the next tasting (on the hour). I paid my money and then tried to find the tasting room (three tries), but was finally led to the right place.

Two other couples, Joe and Pat Weigand from Ft. Lauderdale, FL and locals Lory and Rick Ely were my companions for the event.

We sat at a long table set for each of us. Our place setting included a Tasting Room Experience placemat, a pencil and four pieces of chocolate. Tammy Jo French, with 15 years of Ethel M experience, then sat with us and started telling us about chocolate: where cocoa beans are grown, why cocoa might or might not be successfully grown, how it is processed and how it becomes the candy in front of us. She also gave a brief history of the Mars family business and the Ethel M factory in particular. She said the tasting experiences were inaugurated in February for Valentine’s Day and are being held in a former display area. She used power point slides as she talked and had bowls of cocoa beans and bean shells to show us as well.

As interested as I was in tasting chocolate, I found Tammy Jo’s information very interesting, worth the $10 in itself. After all, who expects to learn about chocolate in the desert? And the tasting? We all tasted one piece of chocolate at a time and discussed how the piece looked, smelled and tasted to us. Four pieces of chocolate – four opinions. Each piece was great, to me, though one of our tasters wasn’t into dark chocolate so gave that piece to his wife. We all seemed to like the piece that combined peanut butter and chocolate and learned that Ethel M makes its own peanut butter.

Done with the four lovely pieces, our group than got a surprise fifth piece of chocolate, a dark chocolate piece with a cherry and cherry cordial inside, a candy that is making a return to the Ethel M Line. Though I typically don’t like to mix chocolate and fruit, this piece was glorious.

And we weren’t finished: Each of us received an Ethel M Chocolatier certificate signed by the “Chief Chocolatier” and a certificate to use that night for a 20 percent discount on any purchases in the gift shop. I had to resist the larger boxes of gift-shop candy where clearly the discount would have returned my $10. Instead, I bought my husband four of the Ethel M chocolate bars –- usually four for $10, but that night four for $8.

The couples that were part of the tasting with me said they loved the event, as did I. So on my recommendation list for Las Vegas visitors now goes the Ethel M. Factory and Cactus Garden Tasting Experience.

PS: Don’t tell Neutrisystem where I went last week.