I first saw the chocolate fountain at a restaurant in a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi a couple of years ago. I was thrilled and got my plate and filled it up. Then I saw what some people were doing like sticking fingers in the chocolate and also putting their fingers on the different items that were to be dipped in the chocolate and deciding against the piece of whatever it was they were putting their fingers on. GROSS. The more I thought about the fountain, the more I think I'm not going to be visiting that dessert item!! Do you think they really get them clean?? I'm not talking about the ones that they rent out to anyone??

Personally, I hate them. It reminds me of eating from a communal trough.

We don't own one, we rent. I refuse to put out the money for what I see as a passing fad. People are pretty excited about them right now, but it's a matter of time before people catch on to the fact that people are pigs.

And they are pigs.

If I saw one of those, unfettered by goo-hands, there would be trampled bodies. YUM.

Funny you should mention this. Last night on "The Biggest Loser" at their "last supper" they had a chocolate fountain & one of the girls was literally licking the thing ... what a loser!!!

Any idea what's in the chocolate? I tried dipping a strawberry in a fountain at a wedding recently. Everybody was surprisingly well behaved -- no fingers! But I had a bad gluten reaction the next day -- and that's the only thing served that could've caused it.

That is one beautiful display... Nasty, grubby, finger-lickin' hands aside.

Oh YUM! From a public health perspective, EWW. From a preggo perspective, "Who the hell cares? Now get outta my way and no one gets hurt!" ;)

Wow. I wish that was set up in my house. Talk about a craving paradise - fruit AND chocolate! I'm ready to jump through the screen and get my grub on!

Is it okay if I lick my own monitor screen? Only my fingers have been in that.

oh.... that looks fab but seriously, hire someone to keep an eye for those straying-fingers-that-dip-into-the-fountain choccie lovers...

*** drool ***

Have been reading, and laughing, but this has entry has seriously got me drooling. You are a fabulous writer. :)

hmm, chocolate fountain. I have to speak up.

When I think about all the stuff that is fluttering about in the air, be it little bits of "dust" and pollen and sneezy bits... (dust is not a thing by itself, actually, it is little bits of other, larger things, like, well, flakes of skin, and dandruff, and hairs, and fluffy tufts from the carpet)

.. and then i think about how sticky chocolate is

... and how there's sort of air swirling all around that thing

i realize i want nothing to do with a chocolate fountain ever ever ever. The chocolate yes. Give me chocolate, lots o' chocolate. But don't swirl it all about in a sea of debris first!

I would sooner lick Augustus Gloop himself before I would eat out of that thing.

Although, it is so beautiful I almost considered asking for a copy of the pic so I could make it my desktop background.

Went to an office party at Christmas that had one of these. Things were going well till the drinks started effecting the "I don't get out much" crowd. I swear they were sticking their tongues under the flow. Class, I tell you, nothing but class.

How can something so right be so wrong?

I have been to a couple of weddings in the sticks..where these have been present. I also agree this is a bad idea when you have it around the "I don't get out much crowd".

BTW, more people took more photos of the fountain, than they did the bride....

I'm a self-admitted chocoholic but even I do not like the fountain. I agree with Boston Cook - too many particles and germs in the air and chocolate is STICKY. Blech.

Give me individually wrapped Moonstruck or Godiva chocolates any day!

I know a little boy who would love to play in tht chocolate fountain....

The fruit looks goddesslicious.

But, I think that the chocolate fountain things look nasty. It just--they look tacky, like those godawful minature fountains that tacky people use for wedding cake decorations. And flowing chocolate--it isn't pretty. I don't care. It reminds me of river water.

And then I think about fingers, dust, and fingers and the "don't get out much" tacky people and their tongues and I just want to hurl.

But the fruit--that is a voluptuously rapturous display.