2. September
River Tubing and Chocolate
Today we went with the families from Zen and Panache, so 6 adults and 6 kids, to
Grenville to go river tubing.
We sat in round tubes and were floating down the river. There were rocks, slow
and fast passages. We had lots of fun, but all wished it could have been longer
and a little bit more action.
After some local food for lunch we headed further North to the Belmont
Plantation. This plantation is 360 years old and served as coffee and banana
plantation in the previous centuries. Since 1944 it is now the largest cocoa
plantation of the Caribbean.
We saw cocoa plants and the fruit and got a tour explaining the fermentation and
drying processes, we learned how a white and quite slimy seed that grows
in a yellow fruit turns into a brown cocoa bean.
We had the opportunity to try those white seeds which are very sweet and
reminded us of Chinese Litschi fruit.
After fermenting for 6 days the cocoa beans are sun-dried on rolling pallets. At
first they tasted a bit like peanuts but then the chocolate flavor came through.
Belmont exports the beans world-wide, but also sells the organic "Grenada
Chocolate" locally. It has either 60 or 71% of cocoa, so it's a very rich
chocolate.
this is a cocoa fruit that contains the cocoa bean seeds
