Students can taste free chocolates from six foreign countries from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“EIU and the Chocolate Factory” will feature desserts ranging from dark and white chocolate to goat’s milk chocolate and a chocolate fountain.

The chocolates were imported from Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Madagascar, Grenada and Ghana.

The chocolate fountain will come with fruit and marshmallows for dipping.

Sienna Mark, a member of the University Board’s Cultural Arts committee, said the committee wants to use the chocolates to represent foreign cultures.

“What we want is to give people an ability to experience different cultures, and food is such a huge part of culture in general,” Mark said. “Chocolate is something that’s very common and very well-received around the world and so we had a lot of different options.”

Mark said she is most excited about the goat’s milk chocolate.

“The chocolate made from goat’s milk is going to be something new that a lot of people haven’t tried before,” Mark said. “That’s going to be a unique experience for people.”

All chocolates up for sampling were made without child or slave labor. The Culture Arts committee will lead discussions on this topic during “EIU and the Chocolate Factory.”

Mark said raising awareness for slave and child labor is a major factor in having the tasting.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how prominent (inhumane labor) is in all of the foods that we eat,” she said.

Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé are among those companies that use child and slave labor.

The committee will provide water to wash out the tastes of the chocolates.

Mark said this is to prevent each chocolate’s taste from mixing with the next, allowing attendees to tell the differences between each sweet.

Attendees will also receive a tasting sheet, on which they can note which chocolates they liked or disliked. Mark said the committee used tasting sheets to great success during a coffee-tasting last year.

The Cultural Arts committee will hand out raffle tickets at the door. The tickets, which attendees can enter for the chance to win some of the chocolate featured at the event, are designed based on the Golden Tickets from Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Mallory Kutnick can be reached at 581-2812 or mbkutnick@eiu.edu.