Life is like a box of chocolates: it ends quickly when it tumbles into lava. Enjoy the transient experience of sweet pleasure while you can with today's Groupon. For $20, you get a chocolate walking tour with Philadelphia Chocolate Tours, a $40 value. Tours convene under the Reading Terminal sign at Reading Terminal Market on 12th and Filbert, across from Maggiano's and the Marriott; check the schedule for days and times.

On the tour, learn about fine chocolates, the health benefits of chocolate, chocolate's role in world history, and Philadelphia’s famous chocolate architecture from a tour guide made of chocolate. The guide will also fill you in on the less edible but equally edifying non-chocolate history of Philadelphia. Throughout the tour, you'll also be fed exquisite chocolaty treats, which will melt into ambrosial nectars in your mouth and then re-form back into cacao beans in your small intestine. Thus is the beautiful cycle of chocolate.

The tour lasts two and a half to three hours, and will take you (depending on day and time of tour) to several local chocolatiers and cafés, with occasional special guests and surprises. Some of the locations currently included on tours are:

• Famous 4th Street Cookie Company
• Marcie Blaine Artisanal Chocolates
• Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland
• Miel Patisserie
• Brown Betty Petite
• Capogiro Gelato
• Swiss Haus Bakery
• Philly Cupcake

Reviews

Chocolate fans are abuzz in testimonials provided by Philadelphia Chocolate Tours:

• This tour had the best chocolate, and it really highlighted finding the good chocolate in a city in a place you would not have thought to look. – S. and J.L.
• The combination of tasting fine chocolate, learning about "the food of the gods", and hearing interesting points about Philadelphia's history and development was irresistable [sic]. The variety of chocolate on the tour impressed me. – Diane