JAKE DE PAUL: SWEET TASTING TUESDAY >>>

Among the discerning with a sweet tooth, the quest for chocolate is a perfect obsession, with three of the classic gourmet’s favorite factors at play: 1) there’s a lot to know about chocolate, so you can impress both friends and wanna-bes with your erudition; 2) it’s an artisanal product; 3) one piece of great chocolate tastes like six years in paradise. The fourth factor, the health benefits, make you feel virtuous and smart as hell, but that’s just the frosting on the cake (or the filling in the handmade truffle). Do the cocoa beans come from Java or Madagascar, or are they second-string cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast? Has someone played nasty with the recipe, nicking off the cocoa butter and replacing it with butter-flavored Soya oil?

Find out tomorrow night.

Urban Gourmet still has seats available for its professional Gourmet Chocolate & Wine Tasting tomorrow night. The Sixth Avenue store will offer 10 international chocolates paired with wines.

Reserve your spot now. All your obsessions with chocolate can be fulfilled in one night.

[Urban Gourmet, Tuesday, Dec. 9. 6 p.m., $45, 2602 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.3111]

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide