Kristy and the Chocolate Factory

Last Tuesday, I tagged along with Jason as he went into the field to look at cocoa farmers’ fields. Now, while I was interested in seeing what he did when he was out with the cocoa extension officers, I had an ulterior motive. It was to go to this place:



Yes, it is the Grenada Chocolate Company. I’ve been disappointed that considering that Grenadian cocoa is supposed to be some of the most fine flavoured in the world, there was little chocolate to be found in the grocery stores other than the typical imported chocolate bars. The factory was a small affair. It had a roaster, a cracker and sifter, a masher

an emulsifier to make the chocolate smooth, an area for pouring and packing the bars, and two hydrolic presses to extract the cocoa butter used in the bars. They make both 60% and 71% cocoa, and it is the smoothest dark chocolate I have ever eaten. It is smoother than those Lindt dark chocolate squares we always get at Christmas. The chocolate just melts on your tongue and fingers. Needless to say, it’s wonderful! I think that Jason and I know what we’ll be bringing home for gifts. Any arguments?

At home we also tasted what the cocoa is like in the pod. Jason is holding a cocoa seed. Before it can be used to make cocoa it has to be sweated (fermented in a way), dried and roasted. In its raw form it is a slimy seed that you can suck. Andrew discovered that they aren’t particularly good to chew. In fact, the seed itself turns your tongue purple!

That’s it for our cocoa adventure. Stay tuned for our next post about the Morne Rouge beach and the Rhum Runner from our weekend adventures.