ARLEE — How do you choose between a rich cinnamon and chocolate brownie, topped with a brown sugar icing, and a slice of Olympic chocolate mousse pie, dressed with cherries, pieces of chocolate and a chocolate glaze?

You don’t, if you attended the sixth annual Chocolate Lovers Festival. Instead, you enjoy both, plus 21 other decadent chocolate desserts.

More than 50 people gathered at the Heartview Center in Arlee last Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for an hour of chocolate tasting and judging.

The desserts ranged from cakes and brownies to truffles and even chocolate lollipops. Some names of the desserts included strawberry devil’s food cake, drunken bundt cake, dove of peace chocolate coffee cake, double chocolate pineapple cake, Kahlua cake, Mexican brownies and black out cake.

The participants picked up a list of the desserts at the door, then circled the floor of the center sampling the ones of their choices. They then ranked the desserts. Later in the evening, attendees had the opportunity to purchase desserts in an auction, with the proceeds going to the community development corporation and the Jocko Valley Library.

“This event is really a demonstration of what a community is all about. All diverse people coming together to create something larger than one can do as an individual,” said Paul Mollica, president of the Arlee CDC.

After the participants licked their fingers clean of chocolate, they picked up their auction number to make bids on many of the samples they had just eaten.

“All the money we made tonight goes right back into the community,” Mollica said.

Dan Brister and Andrea Davis of Arlee said they attended the event for the opportunity to have some really great chocolate while supporting the community and the CDC in the process.

“I’m lucky number seven,” Davis said of her auction number. She said she had her eye on a chocolate cheesecake, but she wasn’t able to win the bid on it.

Sitting in chairs lined in a row, the bidders raised their auction numbers as the desserts were showcased around the room and the auctioneer rambled off numbers.

The bidding was fairly vigorous at times, with some desserts final bids topping $60.

The event was co-chaired by Philippa Crawford and Jo Crawford.