Grenada: My 5 favourite things about the island

I will shortly be making my third visit to the Caribbean island of Grenada. My first visit was two years ago when I was invited to experience the Grenada Chocolate Festival, then in it's second year.  I had been to the Caribbean before but I was not expecting to fall in love with this spice paradise like I did.

The island is a very complex place and it's impossible to narrow down the reasons that I love it there so much, however I thought I would just list a few. In no particular order they are as follows:-

Chocolate: Grenada has three main chocolate producers, all of them growing the cacao, harvesting the wet cacao beans and processing them into top quality, world class chocolate.  The future of the chocolate on the island is championed by Magdalena Fielden who has organised The Grenada Chocolate Festival to educate, enlighten and inspire generations of future Grenadians and visitors alike.  This year is the 4th Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival will include some of the familiar events and some exciting new ones as well.  Click here to check it out.

Spices: Grenada is a spice paradise on earth.  You don't need to look far to find nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, vanilla to name but a few and all growing in abundance on the island.  One of my goals was to pick my own nutmeg.  As well as a visit to the Grenada Nutmeg Processing Plant in the small fishing village of Gouyave I had the immense pleasure and opportunity to pick my own nutmeg from a nutmeg tree on the Crayfish Bay Cocoa Plantation as well as stuffing my pockets with the ones that had already fallen on the ground.

The local spice market in St Georges is an explosion of colours and smells to treat all your senses.

I visited the home of a local man who had turmeric growing on his land,

and cinnamon trees.  He and his wife showed me how to remove the bark from the cinnamon tree with instructions to lay it out on our balcony for the rest of our stay and it would dry and curl and look like the cinnamon we know.  On the trip home the smell in my suitcase was intoxicating!

People: Generally I have found that the people who live in Grenada are warm and friendly. The residents of this paradise island want you to enjoy your time there. If you ask anyone for information or help in finding somewhere they will go out of their way to get you there.  Grenada is not a wealthy island for most of the inhabitants however they take great pride in the jobs that they do whether it is supplying bananas they have growing on their property to the hotels or a family ice cream company.

Beaches: Grenada has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Grand Anse beach is often considered one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  Over 2 miles of beautiful white sand - you can walk the whole length dipping into the calm and warm waters to cool off at regular intervals!

Food: The focus on food is freshness and local, simplicity yet innovative, intricate and innovative!  There is a plethora of high end restaurants, small food bars and street food available.

We stopped by the side of the road to chat to this young lady who was cooking corn on the cob from her home garden and selling to passing motorists.

Then markets have piles and piles of fresh produce all locally grown, bananas, coconuts, limes, breadfruit and more.

And of course don't forget the rum.  Rum is my spirit drink of choice, on it's own with an ice cube, a splash of Coca Cola or local pineapple juice, mmmm!!

I was not paid to write this post. All opinions and photos are my own. No photos may be reproduced in any manor without my written permission.

Grenada: 3rd Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival

I was privileged to attend the 2nd Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival in 2015, the first time I had been to the Spice Island and I knew from day one it would not be the only visit!

I was so touched by the people, the spices, the local sense of belonging and of course the beautiful Caribbean sea that I spent the next 12 months talking non-stop about Grenada and planning my next visit!

The 3rd Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival was held in May this year and guess what - I was there again!

Last year we stayed first of all at Blue Horizons Resort near the amazingly beautiful stretch of Grand Anse Beach but more about that in another post.  We also stayed at True Blue Bay Boutique Resort last year where the Grenada Chocolate Festival was also held.

The Grenada Chocolate Festival is the idea and dream (and now dream come true) of Magdalena Fielden, who along with her husband Russ and members of their family run True Blue Bay Boutique  Resort. The resort is located on - you guessed it - True Blue Bay, as stunningly beautiful and serene resort with a combination of beautiful, colourful and well equipped rooms suites and villas.  Mr R came with me last year and we stayed in one of the villas - and fell in love with the place!

Each year the Grenada Chocolate Festival has a theme and this year it was Generation Cacao.  Cacao is one of the major products from the island however the three main chocolate farmers are over 65 years old with no one lined up to follow in their footsteps.

Many of the local children do not realise how important cacao (chocolate) is to their heritage and future existence from which the theme of Generation Cacao was born. The task Magdalena has set  herself is to educate the local children in the growing of cacao beans, production and exportation of the chocolate end product.

Magdalena officially opens the festival with music, Grenadian dignitaries and guests and the festival officially begins.

The opening of the festival includes chocolate food and drink including this chocolate porter beer and my chocolate martini, yumm!

The Grenada Chocolate festival is open to anyone who wishes to purchase a ticket for single events or all of them.  There is a whole collection of events sure to appeal to almost everyone who loves chocolate (and to be honest there are not many who don't).

This year Mr R and myself stayed the whole time at Blue Horizons Garden Resort and popped in to the festival in between  the other blogging opportunities I had lined up for the day's event.

I was also asked to participate in one of the events which was very exciting and a real honour and pleasure.  The resident chef duo at True Blue Bay and YouTube stars, Esther and Omega demonstrated a lunch dish which would of course include chocolate followed by the participants making their own dish which would become a collective lunch.

I was asked to be a small part of the festival and fill in the gap while the main meal was cooking by demonstrating a simple and quick chocolate and banana ice cream and a topping of chocolate covered nuts with chilli and sea salt.

As with any demo things don't always go to plan but I kept talking without getting flustered and everything was alright in the end.  The participants enjoyed their chocolate-banana ice cream topped with chilli and sea salt chocolate covered pecans for their puddings.

Other events that took part during the Grenada Chocolate Festival was a chocolate yoga session, the healthy benefits of cacao by visiting Mexican Chocolate Maker and Chocolate Museum Owner of MUCHO-Chocolate Museum, Ana Rita Garcia Lascurian,

a demonstration of bean to bar chocolate making from Hazel Lee (chocolate maker) and Dom Ramsey - owner of Damson Chocolate (two friends that I made last year on the trip that I have kept in touch with back in London),

a visit to Magdalena's latest project The House of Chocolate, a beautiful, innovative and educational museum dedicated to the humble cacao bean and beyond, located in St Georges, the Grenadian capital.

Last year (2015) I visited one of the island schools which really touched my heart and this year I brought them a whole suitcase of books and school equipment (British Airways kindly waived the extra suitcase fee for me to bring these items for which I am grateful).  The children are so friendly and do love visitors however you can read all about that on another post by clicking here.

The 4th Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival is set to be bigger and better than any before and the theme will be 'Heritage Chocolate'.  If you are passionate about chocolate, spices and wonderful people (and don't forget the sunshine!) then make sure you attend the 4th Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival in May 2017 - I will be there!!