Even if a visit to the Venice of the North is not in the cards for you in the near future, the Chocolate Museum in Bruges (pictured below) does its best to give you a reason or two to include the city in future plans.

The museum gives you a taste of how broad their offerings are with a quick guide on Wine and Chocolate and more intriguing a look at Cocoa Flowers like the Chocolate Orchid.

They made their first encounter with this Chocolate Orchid while visiting Soroa's Orchid Garden at the University of Pinar del Rio in Cuba which counts 700 species of orchids they say.

Another popular if inedible cocoa flower is the Chocolate Cosmos which Linda Jenkinson describes lovingly:

"Slender stems look like candy kisses on a stick and fill the late afternoon with the sweet scent of vanilla tinged chocolate."

If you want to add a dark chocolate scent and a velvety touch to an event, you can purchase some of this Cosmos from Whole Blossoms whose picture I borrowed from May to October.

Don't taste them!