Salivating over the various bakery finds – from oversized carrot-cake muffins heavy with icing and thick slices of flourless chocolate cake, I came across an intriguing find: vegan chocolate mouse. Packaged in a nondescript plastic cup with a gold "VEGAN" label, I thought at best it would satisfy my sweet tooth and at worst it would taste a bit like chocolate-imbued gritty pudding.

For the ancient Mayans, chocolate acted as currency. As a food for the gods. As a drink reserved for royalty and rituals.

Thanks to the Mayans, the rest of the world came to know the power – and appeal – of chocolate. It's a story that's told from start to chocolatey finish at the Ecoparque Museo del Chocolate (Eco Chocolate Museum) in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Do you know the right way to eat chocolate?
 
Real chocolate, not the overly waxy variety that’s common in grocery store aisles and tends to have a saccharine aftertaste.
 
I didn’t.
 
Despite years of thinking of myself as a chocolate connoisseur and doing my best to have a daily serving (or two!) of chocolate, I’d never gone to a chocolate tasting, where the intricacies of the flavor and the importance of the purity of the beans were explained in detail.
 

I live to eat. I travel for food. But there’s a higher calling out there, and you’re about to discover it (and, subsequently, make some travel plans of your own). Yes. It’s true. There’s a whole WORLD of Chocolate Museums (swoon).

For the better part of an hour last week Cheryl Gum entertained me with stories of how she came up with ideas for new truffle flavors and candy concoctions to serve up at The Candy Shop. For the last 33 years, Cheryl has worked at The Greenbrier, an 11,000-acre historic luxury resort in the mountains of West Virginia, which dates back to 1778 and is known as a frequent stopping place for past U.S.

When it comes to storied chocolate towns in Pennsylvania, most people probably point out Hershey in the southeast—home of the little melt-in-your-mouth kisses that made the company, and town, popular. But Erie, located in the northwestern slip of the state that separates Ohio to the west and New York to the East, hugging Lake Erie’s shoreline, has a chocolate history dating back just as far.

Want to make the most delicious chocolate, ever? You'd be surprised at this - it's got dark chocolate, sea salt (naturally), candied ginger, and... pomegranate?! Yes! I, too, was skeptical when I first saw this recipe at the New York Times food section (I've adapted their recipe, in this article).