The blast of cold weather that swept through the Chicago area over the weekend was welcomed by visitors to Geneva on Saturday, including Shelly Atienza of West Chicago, who felt it perfectly complemented the Geneva Chamber of Commerce’s annual Cocoa Crawl event.
“We’re here for the Cocoa Crawl, and you don’t enjoy (cocoa) the same on a 60-degree day,” she insisted. “This weather is the perfect cocoa-drinking weather.”
Beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, the Cocoa Crawl in Geneva offered a multi-venue sampling and shopping experience that organizers said would allow visitors to “stroll through the city and sample cocoa-inspired items.”
The four-hour crawl was a ticketed event and Johanna Patterson, communications director for the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, said that all of the $26 tickets were sold out well before Saturday.
“This is a fun way to kick-off the season with hot cocoa and a fun way to get with your friends and pop around town with a little bit of direction,” she said. “We sold 350 tickets. It was a sellout. We sold out a couple of weeks ago – the fastest we’ve ever sold out the entire event.”
A total of 32 cocoa stops were scheduled this year, a total that Patterson said was the most ever offered during the crawl.
“You don’t have to go to every single stop,” she said. “This has really grown over the years and this time of year people want to pop into the stores and see what’s what and the specials the stores are offering and what pre-holiday merchandise they might have out as well.
“It’s also a great time for people to start thinking about their gift shopping or early Christmas presents,” she said.
Heidi Cadwallader, owner of Shine Over Shade, was one of the new merchants joining in the crawl this year, noting that “I took this store over less than a year ago and my one-year anniversary is coming up in a few weeks.”
“I wanted to keep this trend going here in Geneva,” Cadwallader said. “Being part of the downtown merchants is a pleasure.”
She said her own cocoa offering at the event was “a dark chocolate s’more – hot cocoa with graham cracker sprinkles and little charred marshmallows.”
Atienza’s friend Niki Martinez of South Elgin said this was her first Cocoa Crawl ever.
“We are going to try doing the sweet treats first and then transition over to the cocoas and hopefully end with adult cocoas,” Martinez said.
Janet Marks of Downers Grove likewise said this was her first Cocoa Crawl in Geneva and said, “I love hot chocolate.”
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“I drink it all the time,” she said at the event on Saturday. “For me, a good one is not too sweet because I like to have it with something sweet like a cookie on the side or something. I know they are doing some different spins on things and I’m anxious to try them because I usually have it plain. Today, I’m going to try and splurge.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.