Marly Chocolates owner Gail Robinson knew audience members didn’t come to the Evanston Library on Monday night only to hear her speak. And she didn’t blame the crowd when their eyes began drifting to a table filled with samples of dark, milk and white chocolate pieces.

“If I’m boring you, just have some chocolate,” said Robinson, as she pointed to the table.

Robinson, a 20-year veteran of the chocolate business and owner of Marly Chocolates at 527 Davis St., shared her knowledge of chocolate’s origins, production and appeal to an intimate audience at the library.

Americans consume a whopping 26 pounds of chocolate per person per year, Robinson said, giving the United States the second-highest consumption rate in the world. But while everyone knows that one bite of chocolate can satisfy any sweet tooth, the treat’s popularity runs deeper, Robinson said.

“There’s something luxurious about it,” said Robinson, 62. “It’s seductive, slippery, sensuous. It’s a very luxurious little product.”

Robinson opened Marly Chocolates about eight months ago. She said creating a flawless sample of chocolate is a difficult task that requires attention to the specific type of bean, heating conditions and temperature.

In working to create a perfect treat, Robinson tempers the chocolate by heating and cooling it until it reaches the right consistency. If the temperature differs even one degree from what it should be, the result is soft, crumbling or powdery chocolate, she said.

“When you get a chocolate bar and it’s shiny and hard, it’s in perfect tempering condition,” she said.

Robinson said the attention to detail is “one of the reasons why (making chocolate) is such an art.”

During the speech, she touched on chocolate’s shelf-life, saying the candy can last for a long time without spoiling. But because consumers are so eager to snatch up chocolate, it’s difficult to tell the precise length of time it can last, she said.

Robinson first became interested in sweets as a child, when her family traveled to the beach for the summer. Robinson recalled a saleswoman whose caramel apples became the inspiration to the business she started in the mid-1980s. Robinson’s first company sold vanilla-, caramel- and chocolate-covered apples to retail outlets.

She said she jumped at the chance to make a profit doing what she loved. As her company grew from its Chicago roots, it began to produce more chocolate. Robinson said she’s always enjoyed witnessing her customers’ reactions to her sweets.

“One of the greatest pleasures I get in my life is seeing the smile that comes on my customers’ face when they taste my chocolate,” she said.

Robinson told the audience that the sweet taste of chocolate isn’t its only positive quality. Despite the myths, chocolate does not give people shakes or migraines — in fact, some forms are even nutritious.

“Dark chocolate is a health food today, ” Robinson said. “It has antioxidants in it. It lowers cholesterol.”

Plenty of customers excited to taste the free samples attended the speech.

Marlene Brandis, an Evanston resident, said she enjoyed learning about the sweets she enjoys so much.

“As a ‘chocoholic,’ I loved it,” said Brandis, 70. “I wanted to find out about chocolate, and I was hoping there would be something to taste.”

Brandis even dressed for the event, wearing a chocolate-dyed shirt she picked up on vacation in Hawaii.

“I thought, I needed a chocolate shirt,” Brandis said, unzipping her overcoat to reveal the brown-colored T-shirt. “The problem was not to eat it on the way home.”