In My Glass

Chocolate 101

Digging into Caribbean culture can come up with amazing treasure

by Trevor Burton photography by Trevor Burton

Over the years, my wife, Mary Ellen, and I have spent quite some time in Saint Lucia. Some historical context; during colonial times, the island went back and forth between French and British control. A lot of the French stuck. French is a major part of the island’s “Patwa”—a mixture of French and Creole. And there’s a good amount of a mixture of French and Creole cuisine which is always attractive to us—French culinary skills along with local, island ingredients. In addition, there’s a good chance that you might bump into a bottle of decent French wine.

We have been and continue to be drawn to that. But it was a different kind of history and culture that led us to a neat, unique experience. Saint Lucia has had a long history with chocolate. Cacao was introduced to the island in the late 17th century. It turned out to be a match made in heaven. A combination of high temperatures, lots of rainfall and rich soil allowed beans to prosper. Chocolate became a major export, shipped to a town called Hershey in Pennsylvania and, also, to Europe. Today, cocoa pods sprout from trees all over the island. And most of it stays in Saint Lucia.

CoCoa Pods sProut From trees aLL oVer tHe st. LuCia.

We got to make a bar of chocolate from scratch! We headed out to a resort, the Hotel Chocolat, on the Southern end of the island. The resort is located in the middle of a jungle, far isolated from anything. We were headed for the front porch at an old house on the resort. Our first experience was a neat surprise. We looked out at a spectacular view of one of the island’s Piton Mountains. The Piton Mountains are Saint Lucia’s “signature” sight. Probably the most photographed attraction on the island. We had our own private, exclusive viewing—and we were going to make chocolate.

Our chocolate endeavor started just a couple of steps after the raw cacao beans had been harvested. After harvesting, beans are dried and ground up; that’s when we got ahold of them. Making chocolate by hand is labor intensive. Using a simple pestle and mortar, we ground the dried chocolate bean pieces for, what seemed to be like, ages. We ground them to a paste. Then we folded in a little cocoa butter and a little bit of sugar and kept on grinding. Finally, we arrived at a thick paste that we spooned into a mold. Then we let it sit and cool and harden. The only option, after such a tough grind, was to go to lunch.

We headed to the nearby Old Mill Inn. This is a restaurant that has been transformed from a working plantation that once produced limes, copra, and cocoa. None of the French/Creole cuisine we normally seek out. Here we were definitely on the traditional, Creole side. Local ingredients, locally prepared in the middle of a jungle. It was a pleasant way to while away an hour or so as our chocolate went through its processes.

From there, we headed back to pick up our self-made chocolate bar. It wasn’t the best chocolate we’ve ever tasted; far from it. We’ll leave that to companies like Godiva. Definitely more practice needed. But it was an awful lot of fun in the making. And we had a nice Creole lunch. A fun way to spend the day. We dig digging.

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