Make your own chocolate experience

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St Lucia is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. While I have been here a few times already, at the beginning of this year I finally got the chance to explore beyond the port area and learned a bit more about the customs and culture of the island. I signed up for a tour to that gave us the opportunity to try ourselves in the art of chocolate making. From the port in Castries it was only a short drive to Howelton Estate. When we arrived they gave us a short introduction into their batik clothing making and then we moved on to their chocolate making process.

First we were shown all the ingredients, how these were sourced locally and the steps from raw product to the chocolate bar. Everyone received a small bowl that was heated up. I addition we all were given a small stick of butter, powdered sugar and pieces of raw chocolate. The first step was to melt the chocolate till it became a smooth paste. This took about 30 minutes and we had to to keep stirring it constantly, which is a really good work out. Once the chocolate reached its perfect state the butter and the sugar were added. Again it needed a good stir to combine the main ingredients perfectly.

Once this was achieved we had to choose a flavor for our chocolate bar. I went for local ginger, but other choices were chili, cinnamon... all locally sourced. After we added the flavors, the chocolate paste was added to a small form and left to cool and dry for another 30 minutes, while we took a little break to have a drink and checked out the gift shop.

Once finished we all went home with a small dark chocolate bar, which contained 72% coca. Usually I am not a fan of dark chocolate, but this one had a really nice taste, also I did go a bit over board on the ginger. I really enjoyed this experience and can only recommend to add this to your next visit to St Lucia.

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