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!!

Grenada: Crayfish Bay - Cocoa Farmer for a Day (Bean to Bar)

On my recent trip to Grenada I was able to participate in a variety of events and activities to celebrate the 2nd Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival.  Although I really enjoyed the whole experience I think what really made my trip was the opportunity to be a chocolate farmer for the day.

The growers of the cacao who do all the work and hard labour to bring you the ingredient to make your lives immensly enjoyable do their job more as a labour of love than to get rich.  The cacao grower receives a low payment for their product which then makes its journey to far flung places to be made into the chocolate treats we know and love and which make a lot of profit for the manufacturers.

There are three main cacao farmers on the island of Grenada who produce fine, single estate chocolate and I was really thrilled to spend the day on one of these.  Crayfish Bay is run by English born Kim Russell and his wife.  Kim has formed a co-operative with his workers ensuring that they get 90% of the money he makes from the chocolate production which enables his workers to provide more than the basics for their family such as schooling and medical treatment but this wasn't always the case.  It took a vision and a lot of hard work bring together the local farmers and to build up the three main chocolate companies on the island; The Grenada Chocolate Company, Crayfish Bay and the Diamond Chocolate Company.

We arrived at Crayfish Bay early one morning during our second week on the island, equipped with bottles of water, hats and sunscreen, long trousers to keep the bugs off our legs and plenty of mosquito repellent.  Kim with his casual personality that hides a deep commitment to the island and the cocoa trade enthralled us with the history of Crayfish Bay, the work needed to look after the cocoa trees and the hard work that goes into the whole process.

Picking and processing the cocoa is a long and laborious process and one that cannot be factory mechanised and done in mass production.

There no neat paths to walk or pavements in the cocoa forest but gullies to jump over and uneven footing.

Kim explained the role of the banana plants to the cocoa. You see banana plants throughout and the reason is two-fold.  Firstly when the cocoa plants are young their roots don't go down deep enough to tap into a water supply so they use the banana plant roots to tap water from and then the banana is a faster growing plant and provides shade for the young cocoa plant until it is able to grow strong and tall.

A fresh water spring and a bit of shade, scent of nutmeg trees growing around you and the thought of the chocolate delights you will be making all add to the sense of tranquility and ideal life around you.

The cocoa pods vary in colour and are fairly large.  Mostly they are split open with a machete and then the inside white beans are pulled out and collected in large buckets.

The white covering of the beans is a flavour inhibitor and must be removed by putting in large bins to ferment for several days, leaving the cocoa beans to be dried and roasted.

Cocoa beans roasting.

A larger enterprise might roast them in stainless steel roasters but at Crayfish Bay the beans are roasted in small quantities and then laid out to dry in the sun

The cocoa beans dry in the sun. To keep them moving and to ensure they dry evenly workers 'walk the cocoa' with their bare feet expertly turning the beans without crushing the.

Crayfish Bay don't spend money on large industrial machines but in fact adapt existing machines to do a job.

Rumbling and shaking and suddenly the cocoa beans poured into the hoppa start coming out as a velvety, dark chocolate river.

On the day I was part of the picking team we picked twelve buckets of 'wet' cocoa and below you can see five of the twelve buckets that the two teams had picked. We really thought we had done well as our haul weighed 475 lbs and we were like rung out washing.  Kim quickly brought us down to earth with a bump - on a typical day his crew would pick approx 2,000-3,000 lbs of wet cocoa!  Nevertheless we felt proud of our achievement.

When we finished our 'work' we sat down on the open living room and drank freshly squeezed sweet seville orange juice which was followed by a huge bowl of Kim's signature Callaloo Soup with Dumplings and a fine buffet to help replace all the lost energy.

Crayfish Bay do not make any of their chocolate into bars for sale but instead ship their chocolate to a small, out of the way village in Suffolk to the home of Pump Street Bakery.

Set in the idyllic Suffolk country village of Orford Pump Street sell a selection of single bean, organic estate chocolates one of which is from Crayfish Bay in Grenada.

I made the journey to Orford to buy my chocolate last weekend to visit my daughter who lives in Ipswich which is a short drive away and I wanted to treat the grandchildren to a cup of hot chocolate and tell them the story of 'Nanny and the Chocolate Factory'!

Although Pump Street sell their chocolate online and offer a next day delivery service of their freshly baked breads and pastries I wanted to visit them personally and tell them how I picked some of the chocolate they would be selling in their bakery!

Once home the cocoa forests of Grenada seemed a long way away but the memory of picking, emptying the cocoa pods, traipsing up and down the steep hills, eating fresh mangoes and grapefruits will, along with the rest of the memories, stay in my mind forever!

I was a guest of Crayfish Bay Chocolate Plantation and want to thank them for a life-changing experience.  All opinions and photos are my own.