A group of us, who really love desserts, got together the other evening. After a satisfying meal and good conversation, one of the group presented us with the dessert of the evening: a chocolate tasting.

She had several dark chocolate bars, with at least 50% cacao or more, each flavored with different bits of spice and other enhancers. We each nibbled off a corner of the one-ounce square, and tried to guess what the flavors were.

The first was an extremely dark chocolate with bits of hot green chile. The aftertaste, that is, after my mouth stopped burning, was on the bitter side.

There was the espresso with cardamon and plum, the white chocolate with lemon, and pistachio, the lime and tortilla chip-studded bar. My personal favorite: it was the milk chocolate with bacon. Yes, bacon and everything is quite trendy right now, but what a fabulous combo it made in this chocolate bar. The chocolate tasting left us all feeling content but not stuffed to the gills, which is what a good dessert should do.

So you can do a chocolate tasting, too. There are so many new artisan chocolate bars in the stores, and you only need to pick up three to five to put together a fun and different way to end a meal. Besides, you usually have plenty of chocolate left over, to continue on with your own private sampling when your guests have left.